joaotavora@gmail.com (João Távora) writes:
What exactly is the use case that (ql:quickload :slime-quicklisp-helper) is good at solving? And how would it be easier/better/different than
M-x install-package RET slime-fancy RET
(if that were possible)?
quicklisp-slime-helper was designed to improve two things.
First, installation used to be a real pain, what with using CVS, setting up load paths for both ASDF and elisp, and configuring stuff. It was intended to cut out all the fetching work and most of the configuring work. If M-x install-package can do that now, that's one problem solved.
Second, it was meant to make it easy to go back in time (http://blog.quicklisp.org/2011/08/going-back-in-dist-time.html) to work with a swank from a particular timeframe, and load the right slime to be compatible with it. I'm not sure if the emacs packaging system can help with that, but if it can, that's cool.
Zach