Re: Stumpwm & using Lisp in guix - particularly quicklisp

[Trev <trev@trevdev.ca>]

Paul Jewell via <help-guix@gnu.org> writes:

> Good morning Guix,
>
> I have a working stumpwm config which I use on my desktop gentoo 
> installation, and I want to use the same configuration file under guix. 
> Unfortunately I run into a problem as when stumpwm starts, it complains 
> it can't find package "ql". Quicklisp is installed in my user home 
> directory, but this is clearly not being seen by stumpwm. I also note 
> that packages I can install through quicklisp are also packaged in guix 
> (e.g. alexandria). When I start sbcl in a terminal, everything works as 
> expected, and quicklisp is seen.
>
> This leads me to some questions:
>
>   * How do I configure stumpwm on my system so it looks in my home
>     directory, and observes my .sbclrc file when starting?
>   * What is the guix recommended way for working with lisp packages?
>     Should I avoid using quicklisp, and instead use the provided
>     packages in guix? I am unable to find any documentation (either
>     official or blog posts etc) explaining this.
>
> Many thanks!

I have no experience with quicklisp and am new to Common Lisp in
general, but I do use guix and am getting happier with every hack I make
on stumpwm and I can tell you what has worked for me:

1. Use the supported asdf system that Guix uses to package lisp programs
and extensions.

2. Install your stumpwm, repl & extensions in the same profile, be that
profile your system or your home/user space.  This helps a sbcl find
everything.

3. If you want some divergent profile to pick up all the bits from your
system or home profile, make sure to include them all in that divergent
profile.  An example of this is I used to have stumpwm in my root system
because I wanted GDM/convenience.  I then wanted all other related 3rd
party scripts to be contained in my home profile.  To make this work I
had to declare all the same dependencies in my home profile as I had my
root system.

The source code is your best friend for learning how to
package/implement the asdf build system.  You can also check the
documentation for build systems in general:
https://guix.gnu.org/manual/devel/en/html_node/Build-Systems.html

For the most part I have been able to find everything I needed from the
official guix repository.  I have contributed back the things I could
not find wherever it seemed appropriate.  For everything else, I have my
own personal guix channel.  I do this to avoid the need for activating
guix shell over and over again.

I get that quicklisp is an expected way to manage 3rd party packages for
Common Lisp but after years of working with NPM & JavaScript, the idea
of quicklisp turns me off.  Rant over, I hope this helped!

-- 

Trev : 0FB7 D06B 4A2A F07E AD5B  1169 183B 6306 8AA1 D206