Re: [Sbcl-help] Reload packages

[James F. <li...@el...>]

How about I send my reply to the entire list this time, instead of
directly to Giovanni?
*facepalm*


>> Rather than using the deprecated 'require, it would be worth looking
>> into ASDF.
>
>
> Isn't 'require equivalent to asdf:load-system in sbcl?

It _can_ be. I thought the answer was "hell no, they're different things,"
but the spec says that enough of its behaviour is implementation-specific
that it can default to using ASDF. According to Zach Beane, that's exactly
what SBCL does:
http://xach.livejournal.com/191187.html
I'll take his word for it, because I know that he knows a lot more about
this than I do.

However, I'm pretty sure that's exactly why it's deprecated: so much of
its behaviour is _defined_ as being implementation-specific that you can't
be sure that you've used it in a way that's portable.

If you're using it with the expectation that ASDF will be invoked under
the covers, you're better off making the assumption explicit, and calling
it directly. So much better than switching implementations two years from
now and wondering why your code is suddenly failing in unexpected ways.

Me, I just keep the following convenience function in my .sbclrc to save a
bit of typing:
(defun asdf-load (pkg)
  (asdf:oos 'asdf:load-op pkg))


Cheers,
James