On 16 Mar 2018, at 13:05, Lucien P wrote:

On Fri, Mar 16, 2018, 11:25 Robert Dodier robert.dodier@gmail.com wrote:

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Hi, I am resuming my tinkering on the Maxima interface to ASDF. I have bumped into a kind of minor problem for which I don't see a solution.

Maxima can read .info files for documentation items. An index file (Lisp) which is created ahead of time (not run time) tells where the items are in the .info. The .asd, index, and .info are all in the same directory. Some code in the index file tells Maxima to read the .info from the same place from which the index is loaded (via *LOAD-PATHNAME*).

That works great when the asd is loaded via LOAD-SOURCE-OP since *LOAD-PATHNAME* points to the directory where the .info file is. But when the asd is loaded via LOAD-OP, it doesn't work, since *LOAD-PATHNAME* points into the place that ASDF puts fasls.

I gather from the ASDF reference manual that there isn't any way to load, without compiling, only the index file (I'm looking at "How do I mark a source file to be loaded only and not compiled?"). So I'm thinking about some other way to locate the .info file. Is there a special variable or something which tells the path from which the .asd is being loaded? I looked at the documentation and the list of external symbols but couldn't puzzle out anything.

The more general idea is that the system contains a non-Lisp data file. Is there a general approach to work with that?

Thanks for any light you can shed on this problem.

Robert Dodier

The way I've been doing this is with a :STATIC-FILE component (you must include file extensions).

ASDF will put your static file into the FASL location without touching it then you can find it to load using ASDF:FIND-COMPONENT. One of the component's slots will have the pathname of the "compiled" file in it, you don't have to use *LOAD-TRUENAME*.

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I don't believe a static file should be moved, and if not moved, you should be able to load it with something like this;

``` (asdf:system-relative-pathname "maxima" "subdir/my-static-file.blort") ```

To be honest, I don't fully understand the question. How is the index file created, and by what process? Is it created as side-effect of compilation, or is there some special compilation process that creates it? If the latter, then that process could be brought under ASDF control, and the code used to create the index file could be configured, through the use of output-files configuration, to place the file wherever you want.

On the other hand, if the info files are static, and the indices are created in the FASL location, then you can just use `ASDF:SYSTEM-RELATIVE-PATHNAME` instead of `*load-pathname*` to find the file.

On the other other hand, you could use `*compile-file-truename*` instead of `*load-pathname*`, but that would have semantics that could vary (e.g., if you load some of this stuff interactively, instead of through ASDF), so that's not an ideal choice.

On 16 Mar 2018, at 15:03, Robert Dodier wrote:

Thanks, Robert, that helps a lot. Using ASDF:SYSTEM-RELATIVE-PATHNAME is a big step forward.

A follow-up question: Is there a way to know, within a file which is being loaded, whether or not it's being loaded via ASDF? The index file might be loaded via CL:LOAD also.

Just to clarify the situation a little, the .info is created from .texi by makeinfo, and then it's parsed (by a Perl script -- OH MY WHAT HAVE I DONE?? Ha ha, only serious) to get the offset and length of each documentation item, which is stored in the index, which is implemented as a Lisp program that reads the .info and builds suitable hash tables, to be used by Maxima's documentation system at run time. All that with makeinfo and the info parser happens long before ASDF comes into the picture. The .info and index.lisp are packaged with the rest of the code, and that's the package that ASDF sees.

I don't doubt that this systems has flaws, but at this point I am taking it as a given; I'm trying to make progress on a lot of fronts, and cleaning up this monstrosity is a lower priority item.

best, Robert Dodier

Another trick you could try is to define a special class of files for the info files (probably just a subclass of `cl-source-file`). Then you could tell ASDF not to move that class of files, by providing a method on `OUTPUT-FILES`. Here's the relevant `DEFGENERIC`: ``` (defgeneric output-files (operation component) (:documentation "Methods for this function return two values: a list of output files corresponding to this action, and a boolean indicating if they have already been subjected to relevant output translations and should not be further translated.

Methods on PERFORM *must* call this function to determine where their outputs are to be located. They may rely on the order of the files to discriminate between outputs. ")) ```

You can return T for the second value in order to have output-translations *not* apply, IIRC.

On 16 Mar 2018, at 17:52, Robert Dodier wrote:

On Fri, Mar 16, 2018 at 1:59 PM, Robert Goldman rpgoldman@sift.info wrote:

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Another trick you could try is to define a special class of files for the info files (probably just a subclass of cl-source-file). Then you could tell ASDF not to move that class of files, by providing a method on OUTPUT-FILES.

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You can return T for the second value in order to have output-translations not apply, IIRC.

Actually, one way to achieve the effect that I want is to have the info file copied into the place where the fasls end up (because then *LOAD-PATHNAME* points to the place where the info file is found, just as it is when the index.lisp is loaded via LOAD).

I suppose I could create a class that has the effect of copying the info files without any other operation on them?

best, Robert Dodier

Yes, for example, you could override the `COMPILE-OP` for this class of files to just do the move, instead of being a no-op.

Now that I think of it, if these index files are lisp data (some kind of table, right?), couldn't you actually compile them? If you can use `CL:LOAD` on them, couldn't you also use `COMPILE-FILE`? In which case, I think you could just treat them like cl source files, and use `(or *compile-file-truename* *load-truename*)`. I think that would give you the behavior you want.

Best, r