What are you trying to do? Are you simply trying to get cl-ppcre to work under PLWW?
If so, send me the url of where you downloaded it (so that I'm working with exactly the same code) and I will make it compile under LWW and send you the fixes some time this afternoon.
Trying to fix asdf problems is WAY too frustrating, until you have more experience with LW under your belt. You might actually be hitting a bug in the release, which needs to be explored and reported to Edi. Don't waste your time.
pt
You can read below if you wish (I aborted the explanation and then wrote the above) ... ...
Error: In ZEROP of (:ACTIVE) arguments should be of type NUMBER.
...
The error message says that there was a call (ZEROP :ACTIVE). Indeed, :ACTIVE is a keyword, which evaluates to itself and is or type symbol, i.e. not a number.
It looks like you've hit a spot where LW error checking is more strict than whatever lisp was used to make this release (of asdf?).
Get to the point where you get the error, then hit the toolbar button that looks like a bug (Start GUI Debugger). This should show you the traceback GUI. Double-click on the function name closest to the top and this should position your cursor on the line in question (there might be one or two debugger functions at the very top of the traceback, so you might need to try a few of the topmost functions).
From the context, you might see how to fix the bug, e.g. maybe something like
(if (symbolp xx) (if (eq :ACTIVE xx) ...
When you get frustrated, remember that asdf only loads the files. You can do this yourself manually. Look at the asdf file, it should be obvious which files are being loaded, then load them into the editor one by one and hit the 'compile and load' toolbar button.
You are beginning to discover why people think that quicklisp is such a big deal - too bad that your firewalls prevent you from using it.