[clisp-list] clisp, version numbering, and documentation

[Nelson H. F. B. <be...@ma...>]

At present, a build of clisp (2.41 being the most recent) produces an
installation of 84 files in these directories:

	$(prefix)/bin/clisp
	$(prefix)/lib/clisp/
	$(prefix)/share/doc/clisp/

This makes it inconvenient to maintain multiple versions of clisp on
the system, since the only way to do that is to change the value of
prefix, requiring yet another directory in a possibly already-long
PATH list.

Many other packages take the approach exhibited by this structure:

	$(prefix)/bin/clisp
	$(prefix)/bin/clisp-x.y.z
	$(prefix)/lib/clisp-x.y.z/
	$(prefix)/share/doc/clisp-x.y.z/

or this one

	$(prefix)/bin/clisp
	$(prefix)/bin/clisp-x.y.z
	$(prefix)/lib/clisp/clisp-x.y.z/
	$(prefix)/share/doc/clisp/clisp-x.y.z/

where the clisp file in the bin directory is a (symbolic or hard) link
to clisp-x.y.z.

Installation of the next release of the package removes

	$(prefix)/bin/clisp

before installing the new executable, so that on completion, all older
versions remain intact, and usable by explicit name, with clisp
pointing to the most recent.

With large complex systems, I have often found it useful to be able to
easily try older versions of the package when an anomaly or bug shows
up.

Please consider making such a change in future versions of clisp.

I also notice that clisp has neither a manual page nor an emacs info
document; both would be welcome additions to future distributions.
While there are a dozen HTML files in the distribution tree, along
with clisp.{dvi,ps,pdf}, Unix systems have no standard place to put
these, and users are accustomed to run the man and info commands to
find documentation.

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- Nelson H. F. Beebe                    Tel: +1 801 581 5254                  -
- University of Utah                    FAX: +1 801 581 4148                  -
- Department of Mathematics, 110 LCB    Internet e-mail: be...@ma...  -
- 155 S 1400 E RM 233                       be...@ac...  be...@co... -
- Salt Lake City, UT 84112-0090, USA    URL: http://www.math.utah.edu/~beebe/ -
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