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Portacle is a god send, it basically allows you to directly start development in Common Lisp without having to install separately (and configure): - SBCL (very

Portacle is a god send, it basically allows you to directly start development in Common Lisp without having to install separately (and configure): - SBCL (very fast lisp implementation) - Quicklisp (lisp package manager) - ASDF (builder) - Emacs - SLIME (Common Lisp mode for Emacs) - Paredit (allows easier editing of s-expressions) - and other tools that make CL development a pleasure. The combination of the tools above are effectively a very powerful Common Lisp IDE.

y03a 9y ago
Do you know if installing Portacle will mess with any existing configurations of those things on Linux? In particular Emacs. I have everything backed up but, since I only plan to play with CL, I don't want the headache if it does.
- phoe-krk 9y ago
  No, it won't. Portacle is 100% self-contained and does not modify anything outside its home directory.
- vindarel 9y ago
  test in peace, it doesn't interfere with your emacs config or anything else :)
- Shinmera 9y ago
  It should not touch anything outside of its own directory. If it does, then that's a bug and needs to be fixed.
aerique 9y ago
So as not to scare people potentially interested in Common Lisp away, you can play around with it using just: - SBCL (or whatever Common Lisp implementation you can get your hands on) - a text editor - (maybe rlwrap)
- weeber 9y ago
  I started to learn Lisp, and struggled after trying to use: - Quicklisp (lisp package manager) - ASDF (builder) They are very complicated to use and understand. Then I abandoned Common Lisp...
  - vindarel 9y ago
    Then you have Portacle ! Emacs isn't the only editor too: https://lispcookbook.github.io/cl-cookbook/editor-support.html https://lispcookbook.github.io/cl-cookbook/editor-support.ht... Lem is also a ready-to-use editor (ncurses or Electron)(but Emacs+Slime is still the best experience (maybe vim?)) You can follow this guide to get started too: https://lispcookbook.github.io/cl-cookbook/getting-started.html https://lispcookbook.github.io/cl-cookbook/getting-started.h... And hopefully this Cookbook will help you along the way: https://lispcookbook.github.io/cl-cookbook/ https://lispcookbook.github.io/cl-cookbook/ Quicklisp takes a couple commands to install, then it's easy. To install a library: `(ql:quickload :my-lib)`. Thinks of it closer to apt than to pip/npm, so you don't upgrade one lib but a QL distribution. You don't really have to deal with asdf. It is used to create a project declaration, which can be generated for you (see "getting started", cl-project). ASDF helps in creating executables, it's also explained in the cookbook.
  - flavio81 9y ago
    >Quicklisp Um... basically the only command you need to learn is ql:quickload followed by the name of the system you want to load. Perhaps you had problems with the concepts of Lisp packages (namespaces)?
    - klibertp 9y ago
      > Perhaps you had problems with the concepts of Lisp packages (namespaces)? Rather unlikely. The namespaces are pretty easy to understand conceptually, and their interface is pretty minimal. Same goes for Quicklisp, very easy to start with, practically one function call needed in most cases. Now there's ASDF. I know, it's a thing of beauty, but it's not simple to use or to understand. Well, it's actually that way for good reasons: the problem it solves is complex and hard. The only comparable system I know of is Erlang releases mechanism, which is also a solid tool, but definitely not the simplest one in Erlang repertoire. Anyway, if someone cites ASDF as a reason for struggling with Common Lisp, I find it very believable.

y03a 9y ago

Do you know if installing Portacle will mess with any existing configurations of those things on Linux? In particular Emacs. I have everything backed up but, since I only plan to play with CL, I don't want the headache if it does.

phoe-krk 9y ago
No, it won't. Portacle is 100% self-contained and does not modify anything outside its home directory.
vindarel 9y ago
test in peace, it doesn't interfere with your emacs config or anything else :)
Shinmera 9y ago
It should not touch anything outside of its own directory. If it does, then that's a bug and needs to be fixed.

aerique 9y ago

So as not to scare people potentially interested in Common Lisp away, you can play around with it using just: - SBCL (or whatever Common Lisp implementation you can get your hands on) - a text editor - (maybe rlwrap)

weeber 9y ago
I started to learn Lisp, and struggled after trying to use: - Quicklisp (lisp package manager) - ASDF (builder) They are very complicated to use and understand. Then I abandoned Common Lisp...
- vindarel 9y ago
  Then you have Portacle ! Emacs isn't the only editor too: https://lispcookbook.github.io/cl-cookbook/editor-support.html https://lispcookbook.github.io/cl-cookbook/editor-support.ht... Lem is also a ready-to-use editor (ncurses or Electron)(but Emacs+Slime is still the best experience (maybe vim?)) You can follow this guide to get started too: https://lispcookbook.github.io/cl-cookbook/getting-started.html https://lispcookbook.github.io/cl-cookbook/getting-started.h... And hopefully this Cookbook will help you along the way: https://lispcookbook.github.io/cl-cookbook/ https://lispcookbook.github.io/cl-cookbook/ Quicklisp takes a couple commands to install, then it's easy. To install a library: `(ql:quickload :my-lib)`. Thinks of it closer to apt than to pip/npm, so you don't upgrade one lib but a QL distribution. You don't really have to deal with asdf. It is used to create a project declaration, which can be generated for you (see "getting started", cl-project). ASDF helps in creating executables, it's also explained in the cookbook.
- flavio81 9y ago
  >Quicklisp Um... basically the only command you need to learn is ql:quickload followed by the name of the system you want to load. Perhaps you had problems with the concepts of Lisp packages (namespaces)?
  - klibertp 9y ago
    > Perhaps you had problems with the concepts of Lisp packages (namespaces)? Rather unlikely. The namespaces are pretty easy to understand conceptually, and their interface is pretty minimal. Same goes for Quicklisp, very easy to start with, practically one function call needed in most cases. Now there's ASDF. I know, it's a thing of beauty, but it's not simple to use or to understand. Well, it's actually that way for good reasons: the problem it solves is complex and hard. The only comparable system I know of is Erlang releases mechanism, which is also a solid tool, but definitely not the simplest one in Erlang repertoire. Anyway, if someone cites ASDF as a reason for struggling with Common Lisp, I find it very believable.