debian clisp package

[Sam Steingold]

Hi Luca,

Luca Capello wrote:
> 
> I should apologize for being late: I planned to reply to your mail in
> the next days and providing patches.  Unfortunately, I was then caught
> by other work, both for my real life and for Debian.

that's ok, as long as you actually reply...

> BTW, I read the pkg-common-lisp mailing list on a regular basis, so you
> do not need to cc: me.

I don't think my mails there are accepted.
(do I have to be subscribed? if yes, can I disable delivery and read it on gmane?)

> On Fri, 24 Oct 2008 21:50:39 +0200, Sam Steingold wrote:
>> 1. README.Debian says "In order to use the "disassemble" function you
>> must install gdb". this is NOT true. gdb is only necessary to
>> disassemble functions written in C, e.g., car. functions written in
>> lisp and compiled to byte code can be disassembled without gdb.
> 
> Something like the following patch?
> 
> --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
> diff --git a/debian/README.Debian b/debian/README.Debian
> index 999fd48..b4ea3e7 100644
> --- a/debian/README.Debian
> +++ b/debian/README.Debian
> @@ -16,5 +16,6 @@ system calls to be made from clisp (e.g. resolve-host-ipaddr).
> 
>  disassemble
>  -----------
> -    In order to use the "disassemble" function you must install gdb.
> -
> +    In order to use the "disassemble" function written in C you must
> +install gdb.  Any other function written in Common Lisp and compiled
> +to bytecode can be disassembled without gdb.
> --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

not quite.

     In order to use the "disassemble" function on functions written in C
you must install gdb.  Any other function (written in Common Lisp and
compiled to bytecode) can be disassembled without gdb.

>> A. clisp-link is rarely invoked by the user at the command line,
>> usually it is used from Makefiles.
> 
> While I agree on this, I also know that people tend to not follow
> upstream recommendation and documentation.  And in my experience, the
> first thing I do when I try a new program is to test the --help|-h
> options and `man program` ;-)

yes, clisp-link --help should point to the impnotes.

>> B. clisp-link is already fully documented in the impnotes.
> 
> Debian ships the impnotes as part of the clisp-doc package, which means
> that in most of the case the impnotes will not be available together
> with the clisp-link executable.

"web is the computer" :-)

> My idea was to provide the basic notions, i.e. the same thing we can
> discover if you read the source.  Maybe should I add a note in the
> manpage to direct the user to the full documentation in the impnotes?

absolutely!

>> 3. clisp-dev appears to depend on gcc 4.1 (at least when I try to
>> install clisp-dev on ubuntu, it wants to install gcc 4.1 in addition
>> to the standard gcc 4.2, see
>> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/274824).
> 
> It seems that the version you tried is an old one, since the one in
> Debian does not depend on any gcc version (both clisp and clisp-dev
> packages), at least from version 1:2.43-1.
> 
>> this is eminently wrong. even if clisp itself is compiled with gcc
>> 4.1, it can link with modules compiled with gcc 4.2, so there is no
>> reason for clisp-dev to pull gcc 4.1 (the same for bison, xutils,
>> groff &c &c).
> 
> This could be a problem for Debian: if we build clisp with a specific
> gcc version, then we should depend on that version, since different gcc
> versions can be installed at the same time.

http://packages.debian.org/sid/clisp-dev
Package: clisp-dev (1:2.44.1-4.1 and others)

it depends on a whole lot of stuff.
the __ONLY__ true dependencies are clisp & a C compiler (not necessarily gcc).
the rest is FAKE.
clisp-dev does NOT require bison/debhelper/groff/gettext/xutils.

You might think that libffcall1-dev & libsigsegv-dev might be required, but 
they are NOT, they are already pre-linked (statically) into lisp.a.

readline-dev x11-dev et al are required only for building images on top of the 
full linking set, not on top of the base linking set, so they are at most 
"strongly recommended".

Thanks.
Sam.