Joshua Stone <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > So what are my first steps as a newbie wanting to take part? I have > plenty of energy and desire to plug in to this new community.
Great. A first step might be to check John Wiseman's list of packages with ASDF-INSTALL problems, and see whether there's some library you can work on. You might want to ASDF-INSTALL some of them and, from the error messages you get, try to understand where the problem is. At this stage, it's not yet necessary to immediately solve the problem or fix things, just get some ideas and understand whether you can solve the problem. You have already done this: > One idea -- ok, I looked at Wiseman's list, and saw the ASDF package > "TIMER" listed as borked because it couldn't find SB-THREAD. Makes me > think he's not using SBCL. So I tested it, and it installs fine on > SBCL/Linux/x86. Now I am in a quandary: > > (1) Is this useful information? > (2) If so, where do I record it (or who do I tell)? Yes, it is useful information. John indeed uses OpenMCL under Mac OS X. From the TIMER page at CLiki: http://www.cliki.net/TIMER and from the documentation it points to: http://www.xach.com/lisp/timer/doc.html we learn that the package depends on SBCL features, and is probably not expected to work on other Lisps. Using jargon from test suites, we may say that this is an expected failure. Given this background, you have enough information to work on this item when the "Fixing ASDF-INSTALLable packages" starts--hopefully soon. Most probably, work for TIMER will involve documenting, together with similar cases, the requirements for TIMER, and maybe evaluating how much difficult it would be to port the code (a possible later iteration of this project, or a different project, might involve trying to actually port the code, but I'm just brainstorming). I suggest that you sign up and add appropriate entries for TIMER in sections "Volunteers" and "Tasks" of the ALU Wiki page: http://wiki.alu.org/Fixing_ASDF-INSTALLable_packages and see whether there are some other packages in John's list on which you can work. When enough entries in the list are covered (right now half a dozen out of a hundred), we can apply to Peter and Brad for a formal project, and then start the actual work. > Determining the "intended" or "advertised" compatibility of a package > would be good to keep us from spinning our wheels too much -- wouldn't In most cases, this information is already included in the package's CLiki page, official web site, or documentation, as in TIMER's case. Paolo -- Lisp Propulsion Laboratory log - http://www.paoloamoroso.it/log _______________________________________________ Gardeners mailing list [email protected] http://www.lispniks.com/mailman/listinfo/gardeners
