Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Bootstrapping Quicklisp on ABCL

The other day, I decided that - as many others have done before me - I'd give Quicklisp a go. Being on Windows (and ABCL), I was expecting a bumpy ride.

Turns out I was completely wrong: all I needed was a simple
CL-USER> (load "http://beta.quicklisp.org/quicklisp.lisp")   [!!]

Quicklisp downloaded all its data nicely into my home directory (which - on ABCL/Win - is C:\Users\, C:\Users\Erik in my case). When I need a new ABCL session, for whatever reason, the only thing I need to type to get quicklisp loaded from my local install is:
CL-USER> (load "c:/users/erik/quicklisp/setup.lisp")

That's it. That's all. No bumpy ride. No ABCL issues. It Just Works!

Thanks Zach!



[!!] Warning: you may not want to do it that way, since it will execute the code from the web UNSEEN by you; you won't have a chance to see any security attacks on your PC by anybody slipping in a file which contains the lisp equivalent of "FORMAT C: /Y"

4 comments:

  1. There's a way to make Quicklisp patch your ABCL init file to load itself automatically at startup. I did it (on Linux) and it works fine, though startup takes just a little too long.

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  2. Future versions of Quicklisp's bootstrap file will be available via https, so there will be a greater assurance that the file you're getting is the "official" file. Security concerns exist beyond that, too, but it's a step...

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  3. Hi, I am trying Quicklisp with ABCL calling from Java.
    Trying ...
    (load "~/lisp/lib/qlisp/quicklisp.lisp")
    (quicklisp-quickstart:install)
    works well in Acquamacs.
    But with ABCL:
    #: Unhandled condition of type READER-ERROR:
    The package "QUICKLISP-QUICKSTART" can't be found.
    Any ideas?

    ReplyDelete
  4. P.S.: just in case, when I comment out the line:
    (quicklisp-quickstart:install)

    I get:
    (this message is from LISP interpreter); Note: deleting unused local function LABELS PENDING-VALUE

    ==== quicklisp quickstart 2014-02-01 loaded ====

    To continue with installation, evaluate: (quicklisp-quickstart:install)

    For installation options, evaluate: (quicklisp-quickstart:help)

    ReplyDelete