You're welcome, but really the intuition is due to Drew McDermott, I think in his ILC 2005 paper, which I recommend. (He describes a system like ASDF, but finer-grained, so that even individual data structures can be updated).
This is key to understanding some of the ways ASDF is NOT like "make." Best, R Sent from my iPad On Mar 21, 2018, at 06:25, Attila Lendvai <att...@lendvai.name> wrote: >> I think the Right Thing is to realize that what ASDF does is not so much >> transform files, as to maintain the consistency of the running lisp image. >> Now, in no case does the running lisp image need either the JSON generation >> system or the JSON to lisp translation system. All the running lisp image >> needs to function correctly is an up-to-date lisp file produced by this >> pipeline. So.... > > > this is a very useful insight, thanks for formulating it explicitly! > it's a good candidate for an introductory bird's eye view section of > the manual. > > i already made the JSON generation a separate operation, and now i'm > considering to do the same with the JSON -> lisp generation. > > in a way it makes sense: the lib author tested the code that he > saw. if the lisp generation gets changed/fixed (by a new patch to > CFFI), it may even break the rest of the lib that may be running with > some old assumptions... so, maybe it's better to just make both of > those as a separate process that needs to be initiated by the lib > author explicitly, and then checked into the git history. > > >> Once you think about what ASDF does and doesn't do, I think this makes >> perfect sense. But, of course, it might be a big pain to do so. > > > yeah, it feels like a lot of pain. it would be nice if there was a > fork-like API in ASDF for implementing such exec'd compilation, but > then i guess ASDF itself has no clue which /foo/bin/ directory has the > underlying lisp binary, and/or which lisp to launch at all, let alone > how... > > -- > • attila lendvai > • PGP: 963F 5D5F 45C7 DFCD 0A39 > -- > “Far from helping students to develop into mature, self-reliant, > self-motivated individuals, schools seem to do everything they can to > keep youngsters in a state of chronic, almost infantile, dependency. > The pervasive atmosphere of distrust, together with rules covering the > most minute aspects of existence, teach students every day that they > are not people of worth, and certainly not individuals capable of > regulating their own behavior.” > — Alfie Kohn, 'Punished by Rewards: The Trouble with Gold Stars, > Incentive Plans, A's, Praise, and Other Bribes' >
