Quicklisp news

Alexandria had a bug that broke its copy-file function. This busted several things, including, critically, quicklisp-slime-helper. So, for the first time, I've done a dist update way ahead of schedule for a bugfix. To get the update with the fixed version of Alexandria, use (ql:update-dist "quicklisp").

A number of other projects were updated, too. Here's a summary:

New projects: cl-llvm, defmemo, genworks-gdl, rpm.

Updated projects: alexandria, clouchdb, com.google.base, com.informatimago, gbbopen, gtk-cffi, hemlock, lisp-gflags, log4cl, metatilities-base, mime4cl, slime, spatial-trees, static-vectors, wuwei, xcvb.

update/warning: The version of Alexandria in this dist release has a serious bug in copy-stream. Once it's fixed I'll be pushing out a quick update of the March dist. If you haven't updated yet, you should wait until a new announcement.

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There's a new Quicklisp dist update available. To get it, use (ql:update-dist "quicklisp").

In general, I try to publish dist updates on the first weekend of each month. This update slipped a few days. I hope to make the next update on April 7th or 8th.

Changes

New projects: cffi-objects, circular-streams, cl-emacs-if, cl-freetype2, cl-gap-buffer, cl-haml, cl-messagepack, fare-memoization, firephp, inferior-shell, log4cl, marching-cubes, multival-plist, package-renaming, reader-interception, weblocks, zsort.

Updated projects: alexandria, atdoc, caveman, chillax, cl+ssl, cl-azure, cl-cairo2, cl-cli-parser, cl-closure-template, cl-gdata, cl-i18n, cl-inotify, cl-jpeg, cl-kanren-trs, cl-oauth, cl-parser-combinators, cl-portaudio, cl-routes, clack, clfswm, clhs, clonsigna, closer-mop, clpmr, clsql, cobstor, com.informatimago, com.informatimago.rdp, commonqt, contextl, css-selectors, doplus, drakma, exscribe, f2cl, fare-csv, fare-mop, fare-utils, gbbopen, glaw, glop, gtk-cffi, hemlock, hunchentoot, lambda-reader, let-plus, lift, mcclim, mime4cl, mixalot, montezuma, opticl, parse-js, pettomato-indexed-priority-queue, pg, phemlock, postmodern, protobuf, restas, rucksack, rutils, s-xml, sclf, shadchen, slime, smtp4cl, swank-client, trivial-dump-core, trivial-ldap, uri-template, usocket, wuwei, xcvb, xuriella, yason.

Removed projects: cl-llvm.

New projects: city-hash, cl-dbi, cl-gdata, cl-portaudio, cl-variates, clesh, clhs, dlist, monkeylib-json, monkeylib-parser, napa-fft3, parseltongue, persistent-tables, random-access-lists, shadchen, swank-client, toadstool, trivial-dump-core.

Updated projects: alexandria, babel, blackthorn-engine, blackthorn-engine-3d, caveman, chipz, cl-2d, cl-azure, cl-cairo2, cl-csv, cl-decimals, cl-dropbox, cl-enumeration, cl-i18n, cl-libxml2, cl-llvm, cl-mongo, cl-mssql, cl-murmurhash, cl-mysql, cl-num-utils, cl-oauth, cl-project, cl-random, cl-redis, cl-scribd, cl-twitter, cl-unification, cl-yahoo-finance, clack, clazy, clfswm, closer-mop, collectors, com.informatimago, com.informatimago.rdp, css-lite, drakma, ext-blog, gbbopen, gtfl, gtk-cffi, ht-simple-ajax, hu.dwim.util, js, latex-table, lift, linedit, lisp-on-lines, lla, lparallel, manifest, metabang-bind, metatilities-base, misc-extensions, mixalot, monkeylib-markup, monkeylib-markup-html, monkeylib-pathnames, monkeylib-prose-diff, monkeylib-utilities, parenscript, perfpiece, png-read, priority-queue, protobuf, quickproject, rutils, shuffletron, slime, toot, yason, zs3.

Removed projects: monkeylib-foo.

My CDB changes to the Quicklisp clients caused a few subtle problems.

First, the system CDB file was built with incorrect keys. That could lead to a spurious SYSTEM-NOT-FOUND error when trying to use ql:quickload something.

Second, the CDB files were not cleared out when updating dist metadata. The CDB indexes would point to old systems and software even after everything was meant to be updated.

If you run into a Quicklisp problem that seems like it might be related to these issues, here's a way to fix things:

1. (ql:update-client) to make sure you have the latest client
2. Restart your Lisp
3. (in-package #:ql-dist-user)
4. (map nil 'delete-file (directory (relative-to (dist "quicklisp") "*.cdb")))

There's an updated Quicklisp client available now. This version fixes up several problems with the support for looking up metadata in CDB files. To get the new client, use (ql:update-client).

I've also updated the software available in Quicklisp. To get the update, use (ql:update-dist "quicklisp").

New projects:

• bitfield-schema - SIMPLE-BIT-VECTOR low level routines and convenient eDSL over it.
• cl-bloom - Simple Bloom filters with efficient hashing.
• cl-dropbox - Common Lisp Client for the Dropbox API.
• cl-gpu
• cl-murmurhash - 32-bit version of MurmurHash3.
• cl-rsvg2 - Bindings for RSVG Library.
• cl-sam
• cl-scribd - Commong Lisp Client for the Scribd API.
• cl-yahoo-finance - CL interface to Yahoo's finance API
• computable-reals - Computable real numbers.
• deoxybyte-unix
• do-urlencode - Percent Encoding (aka URL Encoding) library
• ext-blog - A BLOG engine which supports custom theme
• image - An image-drawing with some drawing primitives
• kl-verify - A library to generate simple verify code picture
• lisp-executable - Library for defining and creating executables that can be called from the Unix shell.
• pettomato-deque - A set of double-ended queue implementations.
• pettomato-indexed-priority-queue - A binary heap based priority queue implementation with efficient support for find, update, replace, and delete operations.
• priority-queue - A priority queue for Common Lisp.
• restas.file-publisher - A restas module which can publish static files
• stumpwm - A tiling, keyboard driven window manager

Updated projects: 3b-swf, 3bil, 3bmd, babel, bknr-datastore, cl-azure, cl-csv, cl-data-format-validation, cl-docutils, cl-fluidinfo, cl-llvm, cl-locale, cl-marshal, cl-oauth, cl-opengl, cl-quickcheck, cl-stomp, cl-string-complete, clack, clfswm, closer-mop, clpmr, clsql, cobstor, collectors, data-table, deoxybyte-gzip, deoxybyte-io, deoxybyte-systems, diff, doplus, fare-utils, gbbopen, gtk-cffi, hu.dwim.asdf, hu.dwim.delico, hu.dwim.logger, hu.dwim.perec, hu.dwim.rdbms, hu.dwim.reiterate, hu.dwim.stefil, hu.dwim.syntax-sugar, hu.dwim.util, hu.dwim.walker, idna, let-plus, lhstats, linedit, lisp-unit, lla, manifest, mime4cl, mixalot, monkeylib-html, relational-objects-for-lisp, restas, restas-directory-publisher, rfc2388, sclf, shuffletron, slime, static-vectors, stem, thread-pool, toot, trivial-features, trivial-garbage, uffi, wuwei, xcvb, yason, zcdb.

Removed projects: cl-bson-tim.

If you have a project that is available in Quicklisp, please check your system definition. Make sure it has useful metadata in it, like :description, :author, and :license. Several systems have empty description strings; for me, that's worse than a missing description.

SLIME has been updated with a new wire protocol. Please report any SLIME issues to the SLIME maintainers.

If you have any problems getting or using Quicklisp updates, let me know by email or on the Quicklisp mailing list.

Quicklisp uses two text files for information about project releases (releases.txt) and systems (systems.txt). Whenever information about a system was needed (for example, where its system file can be found), both files were loaded completely, from scratch.

I made it that way because it was pretty easy. People immediately noticed that it was also pretty slow, especially when using (asdf:load-system "...") instead of (ql:quickload "..."). The penalty for frequent loading and reloading of the metadata got worse as the number of Quicklisp systems grew.

Today I released a client update that can load metadata from a fast on-disk hash table, a CDB file. The big flat files are converted to CDB once, as needed, and thereafter getting metadata is super-speedy. On my laptop, the improvement for lookups is about 100x; your results will depend on the speed of your disk.

To get the update, use (ql:update-client) and restart Lisp.

If this change causes you any trouble, please let me know via the Quicklisp mailing list.

UPDATE: This change causes trouble. I'm going to put out a fix as soon as I can. Please don't update; if you did update, you can revert with something like this:

cd ~/quicklisp/
wget http://beta.quicklisp.org/quickstart/quicklisp-2011111500.tgz
tar xzvf quicklisp-2011111500.tgz
rm -rf ~/.cache/common-lisp/

UPDATE 2: I can't reproduce the trouble I saw earlier. If you run into trouble, let me know. I really need cases I can reproduce to fix things.

UPDATE 3: Thanks to Mike Clarke, I found a serious problem with the CDB scheme. A fix will be available within a day or two.

Here are some stats for the top 50 project downloads in November:

 1950 alexandria
 1203 slime
 1126 cl+ssl
 1033 babel
 936 usocket
 907 trivial-features
 904 rfc2388
 902 bordeaux-threads
 899 hunchentoot
 889 cffi
 849 trivial-garbage
 828 closer-mop
 820 trivial-gray-streams
 789 cl-ppcre
 703 flexi-streams
 665 cl-fad
 620 iterate
 612 cl-base64
 591 quicklisp-slime-helper
 579 chunga
 499 puri
 488 md5
 480 trivial-backtrace
 470 drakma
 426 split-sequence
 412 metatilities-base
 365 anaphora
 340 cl-who
 327 fare-utils
 313 salza2
 297 cl-json
 292 metabang-bind
 280 uffi
 273 named-readtables
 257 clsql
 242 parenscript
 237 zpb-ttf
 230 asdf-system-connections
 227 zpng
 210 postmodern
 208 fare-matcher
 201 cl-vectors
 200 ironclad
 196 vecto
 190 cl-opengl
 189 clx
 182 arnesi
 169 osicat
 168 parse-number
 167 cl-containers

This report only shows "raw" download figures. It does not distinguish between projects downloaded directly by user request and projects downloaded automatically as dependencies.