Here’s a few quick replies.  I don’t believe the personal edition permits the use of an init file, so for now you’ll be doing things ‘the hard way’.

· Click the File->Load menu on the main LispWorks menu (or podium) and browse respectively to your “asdf.lisp” and “cl-ppcre.asd” files.

· Load the asdf-integration as before.

· On the menu/podium again, click the icon for the “System Browser”.

· The ASDF integration is not obvious.  Look along the right hand side of the System Browser for the three buttons, of a checkmark, an X and some question marks.  Click the question marks and you will be able to select from the available ASDF and LW systems.

I think there’s a glitch in the System Browser.  If you close and reopen it, you’ll probably see all loaded Systems displayed.  You should be good to go as far as loading CL-PPCRE (although your next stumbling block might be understanding Packages).

As to the choice of EXAMPLE-FILE as a name, my guess is that the ASDF integration provided by LW was originally a chargeable support incident (a couple of mine are in the examples too) and that this function is just a general convenience for loading examples.

BC

p.s.    Your feelings about fighting LispWorks are understood.  I had a heck of a time getting started, mainly because I had never travelled in the ‘Land of Lisp’!