Quicklisp news

People sometimes submit libraries to Quicklisp that have significant functional overlap with other libraries. When someone wants to add a new library for functionality that is well-covered by other libraries, I don't always add it right away. There are a few questions I ask first.

First, are you aware that there are many other libraries that fit a similar need? If not, is it possible to use one of those instead? It is possible that an existing library is more complete and mature than a new library. And adding a new library can make it harder for someone else to choose a good option.

If you're aware of other libraries, is it possible that the essential new functionality your library provides can be incorporated into an existing library?
I don't reject libraries for lack of novelty. It's always possible that a new library becomes so clearly superior to all other options that it is the go-to library of the future. But it's best when that happens because you're aware of the existing options (and their strengths and limitations) rather than ignorant of them.

Quicklisp library bundles are self-contained sets of systems that are exported from Quicklisp and loadable without involving Quicklisp.

I added the feature to the Quicklisp client on April 18th and announced it at ELS on the 20th. To get it, use (ql:update-client). It will be available when you restart for the next session.

I've wanted to provide this feature since the beginning of Quicklisp. I primarily pictured this as a kind of delivery tool, where your project should have access to a specific set of supporting libraries without the complexity of Quicklisp loaded in as well.

The interface is pretty simple: (ql:bundle-systems '("foo" "bar" "baz") :to "my-bundle/") will produce a file named "my-bundle/bundle.lisp" that, when loaded, will make "foo", "bar", and "baz" accessible via ASDF without involving Quicklisp at all. All the libraries on which "foo", "bar", and "baz" depend are also included in the bundle, recursively.

The bundle can be relocated without any issues. All its pathnames and indexes are relative to its bundle.lisp.

When bundle.lisp is loaded, the systems in the bundle take precedence over all other ASDF systems. Multiple bundles can be loaded at the same time; the most recently loaded one has the highest precedence. And a bundle can be loaded more than once. If loaded again, it will be moved to the top of the precedence list again.

Bundles also have a local-projects directory that adds some of the automagic from the Quicklisp local-projects feature. Bundle local-projects systems take precedence over the bundle's "built-in" systems.

Quicklisp library bundles are also documented! But they are only lightly tested. If you think library bundles might help you solve a problem, please give them a try and let me know if you have any problems or questions.

This Quicklisp update is supported by my employer, Clozure Associates. If you need commercial support for Quicklisp, or any other Common Lisp programming needs, it's available via Clozure Associates.

New projects:

• birch — A simple Common Lisp IRC client library — MIT
• bytecurry.mocks — Tools to mock functions for unit tests — MIT
• carrier — An async HTTP client — MIT
• cl-cookie — HTTP cookie manager — BSD 2-Clause
• cl-coveralls — Coverage tracker for Coveralls — BSD 2-Clause
• cl-groupby — groupby: A higher order function named groupby as known from Scala. — MIT
• cl-openstack-client — OpenStack client libraries — Apache-2.0
• cl-poker-eval — 7-card hand poker evaluator — BSD
• cl-shellwords — Common Lisp port of Ruby's shellwords.rb, for escaping and splitting strings to be passed to a shell. — MIT
• cl-singleton-mixin — provides singleton-mixin class. — MIT
• dexador — Yet another HTTP client for Common Lisp — MIT
• duologue — High-level user interaction library for Common Lisp — MIT
• dyna — Dyna is an AWS DynamoDB ORM for Common Lisp. — MIT
• find-port — Find open ports programmatically. — MIT
• fmt — Extensible format-like facility — MIT
• folio2 — the folio2 functional-idioms system — Lisp Lesser GNU Public License
• immutable-struct — Library that encourage the use of functional programming + pattern matching — LLGPL
• jonathan — JSON encoder and decoder. — MIT
• json-responses — Canned JSON responses for Hunchentoot — MIT
• kebab — Common Lisp string,symbol,keyword PascalCase <=> camelCase <=> snake_case <=> kebab-case(lisp-case) converter. — LLGPL
• lack — A minimal Clack — LLGPL
• metap — Metap provides metaclass propagation along class inheritance structure. — MIT
• nsort — Natural or Numeric Sort — BSD Simplified
• plump-bundle — A binary storage format for Plump documents. — Artistic
• proc-parse — Procedural vector parser — BSD 2-Clause
• quadtree — Quadtree data structure in Common Lisp — MIT
• quasiquote-2.0 — Writing macros that write macros. Effortless. — MIT
• scriba — A markup format similar to Scribe. — MIT
• should-test — Minimal yet feature-rich Common Lisp test framework. — MIT
• string-escape — Emacs and Python style string escapes in #"..." form. — GPLv3
• thorn — A CommonDoc extension for entering special characters. — MIT
• trivia — NON-optimized pattern matcher compatible with OPTIMA, with extensible optimizer interface and clean codebase — LLGPL
• trivia.balland2006 — Optimizer for Trivia based on (Balland 2006) — LLGPL
• type-i — Type Inference Utility on Fundamentally 1-arg Predicates — LLGPL
• type-r — Collections of accessor functions and patterns to access the elements in compound type specifier, e.g. `dimensions' in `(array element-type dimensions)' — LLGPL
• unix-opts — minimalistic parser of command line arguments — MIT

Updated projects: 3bmd, access, antik, arrow-macros, buffalo, buildapp, chanl, cl-ana, cl-annot, cl-ansi-term, cl-async, cl-charms, cl-dbi, cl-dot, cl-factoring, cl-gobject-introspection, cl-grace, cl-indeterminism, cl-launch, cl-libyaml, cl-mlep, cl-mtgnet, cl-mw, cl-netstring-plus, cl-openid, cl-ply, cl-python, cl-quickcheck, cl-random, cl-readline, cl-reddit, cl-redis, cl-rlimit, cl-sdl2, cl-slug, cl-svg, cl-syntax, cl-tcod, cl-vectors, cl-voxelize, cl-yaml, clack, classimp, clavier, clhs, clim-widgets, clinch, clipper, clos-fixtures, closer-mop, clsql-helper, clx, codata-recommended-values, colleen, com.informatimago, common-doc, common-doc-plump, common-html, commonqt, croatoan, defclass-std, djula, drakma, eazy-project, esrap-liquid, fare-memoization, fast-http, fast-io, femlisp, gendl, graph, gsll, hdf5-cffi, hl7-client, hl7-parser, http-body, hu.dwim.util, hunchentoot, hyperluminal-mem, integral, interface, introspect-environment, js-parser, jsown, jwacs, lass, let-over-lambda, lfarm, linedit, lisp-interface-library, lisp-invocation, lisp-namespace, local-time, lucerne, magicffi, mcclim, media-types, mgl-pax, mk-string-metrics, nibbles, ningle, nst, plump, protobuf, qtools, quri, quux-time, racer, rutils, scalpl, scriptl, sdl2kit, serapeum, shellpool, simple-rgb, skippy, slime, st-json, staple, stumpwm, symbol-munger, trivial-backtrace, trivial-benchmark, trivial-debug-console, trivial-download, trivial-update, umlisp, verbose, vertex, vgplot, weblocks-stores, weft, workout-timer, xmls, zaws, zcdb, zpb-exif, zpng.

Removed projects: autoproject, brlapi, cambl, cl-couch, cl-ledger, hctsmsl, nekthuth, red-black.

To get these updates, use (ql:update-dist "quicklisp").

Enjoy!

Here are the top 100 download for last month:

 5853 alexandria
 4149 cl-ppcre
 3465 closer-mop
 3382 trivial-features
 3296 babel
 3086 named-readtables
 2977 cffi
 2814 flexi-streams
 2795 bordeaux-threads
 2785 trivial-gray-streams
 2784 cl+ssl
 2722 cl-fad
 2641 trivial-garbage
 2315 nibbles
 2313 usocket
 2277 chunga
 2251 anaphora
 2235 cl-base64
 2218 optima
 2142 split-sequence
 1942 ironclad
 1839 puri
 1803 fiveam
 1768 iterate
 1753 drakma
 1729 chipz
 1641 cl-colors
 1629 trivial-backtrace
 1586 local-time
 1559 md5
 1493 slime
 1486 let-plus
 1401 fare-utils
 1392 fare-quasiquote
 1340 cl-ansi-text
 1190 prove
 1180 hunchentoot
 1098 cl-unicode
 1072 trivial-types
 1053 rfc2388
 1021 metabang-bind
 1010 cl-utilities
 986 cl-interpol
 961 cl-syntax
 950 trivial-utf-8
 889 introspect-environment
 846 quicklisp-slime-helper
 827 cl-annot
 802 parse-number
 757 st-json
 716 quri
 710 osicat
 709 postmodern
 686 cl-marshal
 658 trivial-mimes
 654 xsubseq
 651 lparallel
 648 plump
 645 jsown
 641 asdf-system-connections
 614 ieee-floats
 613 trivial-indent
 605 metatilities-base
 604 uuid
 603 array-utils
 601 cl-containers
 596 cl-json
 590 lquery
 584 fast-http
 572 cl-sqlite
 567 salza2
 556 clss
 538 clack
 500 static-vectors
 495 clx
 490 command-line-arguments
 464 cl-markdown
 463 py-configparser
 462 dynamic-classes
 455 circular-streams
 446 asdf-finalizers
 446 zpb-ttf
 446 cl-log
 445 fast-io
 443 cl-abnf
 442 garbage-pools
 440 buildapp
 435 cl-mssql
 425 cl-who
 399 zpng
 397 esrap
 395 http-body
 394 vecto
 391 cl-csv
 389 cl-vectors
 388 iolib
 358 closure-common
 353 lisp-namespace
 351 cl-opengl
 351 cl-dbi