how to create applications with Clozure Common Lisp (on Microsoft Windows)

Question

I am a new one to Common Lisp (using Clozure Common Lisp under Microsoft Windows), who is familiar with c and python before. So maybe the questions are stupid here, but be patient to give me some help.

1) What's is the usual way to run a common lisp script?

Now, I wrote a bat file under windows to call ccl exe(wx86cl.exe) and evaluate (progn (load "my_script_full_path") (ccl:quit)) every time when I want to "run" my script. Is this a standard way to "run" a script for common lisp?
Any other suggestion about this?

2) What's the difference between (require 'cxml) and (asdf:operate 'asdf:load-op :cxml)?

They are seems to be the same for my script, which one should I use?

3) ignore it, not a clear question

4) When I want to load some library (such as require 'cxml), it always takes time(3s or even 5s) to load cxml every time when I "run" my script, there is also much log to standard output I show below, it seems like checking something internal. Does it means I have to spent 3-5s to load cxml every time when I want to run a simple test? It seems like a little inefficient and the output is noisy. Any suggestion?

My Script (require 'cxml) (some-code-using-cxml)

And the output
; Loading system definition from D:/_play_/lispbox-0.7/quicklisp/dists/quicklisp/software/cxml-20101107-git/cxml.asd into #<Package "ASDF0"> ;;; Checking for wide character support... yes, using code points. ; Registering #<SYSTEM "cxml-xml"> ...... some my script output

---EDIT TO ADD MORE----

5) I must say that I almost forget the way of dumping image to accelerate the loading speed of lisp library. So, what is the normal process for us to develop a (maybe very simple) lisp script?

Base on the answer of what I got now, I guess maybe
a) edit your script
b) test it via a REPL environment, SLIME is a really good choice, and there should be many loop between a <==> b
c) dump the image to distribute it?( I am no sure about this)

6) Furthermore, what is the common way/form for us to release/distribute the final program?

For a lisp library, we just release our source code, and let someone else can "load/require" them.
For a lisp program, we dump a image to distribute it when we confirm that all functions go well.
Am I right?

What form do we use in a real product? Do we always dump all the thing into a image at final to speed up the loading speed?

Marcin Marcin · Accepted Answer · 2011-04-14T21:20:27

1) Yes, the normal way to run a whole programme is to use a launcher script. However, windows has much, much better scripting support these days than just the bat interpreter. Windows Scripting Host and PowerShell ship as standard.

1a) During development, it is usual to simply type things in a the REPL (Read-Eval-Print-Loop, i.e. the lisp command line), or to use something like SLIME (for emacs or xemacs) as a development environment. If you don't know what they are, look them up. You may wish to use Cygwin to install xemacs, which will give you access to a range of linux-ish tools.

2) Require is, IIRC, a part of the standard. ASDF is technically not, it is a library that operates to make libraries work more conveniently. ASDF has a bunch of features that you will eventually want if you really get into writing large Lisp programmes.

3) Question unclear, pass.

4) See 1a) - do your tests and modifications in a running instance, thus avoiding the need to load the library more than once (just as you would in Python - you found the python repl, right?). In addition, when your programme is complete, you can probably dump an image which has all of your libraries pre-loaded.

Edit: additional answers:

5) Yes

6) Once you have dumped the image, you will still need to distribute the lisp binary to load the memory image. To make this transparent to the user, you will also have to have a loader script (or binary) to run the lisp binary with the image.

how to create applications with Clozure Common Lisp (on Microsoft Windows)

4 Answers