Re: [STUMP] (sub-modules) / Contrib

[David Bjergaard]

Hi Sam,

Sam Kleinman <address@hidden> writes:

> On Sunday, February 09 2014, 08:05:20, David Bjergaard wrote:
>> * Modules going forward must be asdf load-able and hence quicklisp 
>> compatible.
>> * Module loading can be a matter of (ql:quickload "stump-module")
>> * Module distribution can happen either via quicklisp's
>>   quicklisp-projects on github, or you can "git clone" the source into
>>   ~/quicklisp/local-projects depending on the module author's taste
>> * (load-module "blah") should be able to check a minimum stumpwm
>>   version, and handle the (ql:quickload "") for you (as well as loading
>>   any dependencies)
>>
>> I wrote up a use case here: https://github.com/sabetts/stumpwm/wiki/Modules
>
> My primary lingering concern is about packaging and distribution. While
> I suspect most users use Stump by installing it from git, I think that
> we should be able to ship "binary" packages that don't depend on having
> quicklisp (or even really lisp itself) installed on their system.
>
> Why? This works great with people installing via a package manager, and
> I think does a *lot* to lower the barrier to entry for new users. While
> I think most users will eventually compile themselves, I think it's
> disadvantageous to insist that everyone *must* be a devoted
> common-lipser to use stump.
>
> I think the packaging discussion is larger and more expansive than the
> discussion about contrib (and we don't have to solve all the pieces of
> packaging now,) but I want to make sure that there's a path for people
> who use stump but *don't* have quicklisp installed to be able to access
> some of contrib (particularly if contrib ends up containing a
> significant amount of Stump functionality.)
I agree with all of you're points, especially lower barrier to entry for
new users, as well as ease of getting stumpwm into major distros like
ubuntu/debian, arch, fedora.

Here are my goals:
1. Low barrier to install and run stumpwm (if you can run/use emacs, you
   should be able to run/use stumpwm)
2. If you can configure a  .emacs, you can configure a .stumpwmrc (note:
   this implies that you don't need to know lisp to write your .stumpwmwrc!)
3. Low barrier to hack and distribute modules:
   (quickproject:make-project "module-foo"), hack, distribute

As I understand quicklisp, its packages/systems are asdf2 loadable.  I
take this to mean that if I use quickproject to make a project, I don't
necessarily need quicklisp to load and run the project.  Quicklisp just
organizes downloading and installing dependencies, it doesn't prevent
you from distributing code outside of quicklisp.  I think the emacs
analogy is package.el vs emacs-goodies on debian, vs downloading the
*.el files from emacswiki. 

I apologize to any vim users, emacs is the elephant in the room when it
comes analogies here...

Cheers,

    Dave