Re: Where do .fasl files live?

[mikel@Apple.COM (Mikel Evins)]

In article <9111041857.AA06503@media-lab.media.mit.edu> lieber@media-lab.media.mit.edu (Henry Lieberman) writes:
>I've often wanted the following convention for fasl files:
>
>Every folder with source code also contains a subfolder named "Fasl"
>which holds fasl files for that folder.  The convention of adding a
>".fasl" file to the same directory seems like a holdover from the days
>where some file systems were not hierarchical.  The convention of
>having a separate folder for compiled files works out much better with
>the Mac's finder, especially if you, as I do, habitually use the By
>Icon view.  Even in the By Name view, a list of file names becomes
>twice as long if it includes the fasl files, and you do not always
>want to see this information.  It is easy enough to side-by-side the
>views if you want to see what source files have not been compiled or
>something like that.

The following utility does some of what you want.
It does not supplant the behaviors of both LOAD
and REQUIRE, but might be a reasonable starting point
for you.

COMPILE-AND-LOAD takes a file name as an argument.
If the file is a lisp source file it compiles
the file and stores the .fasl file in a "fasls"
subdirectory, creating it if necessary. It also
moves pre-existing fasl files into the subdirectory
so you don't have to. It then loads the fasl file.

Additionally, COMPILE-AND-LOAD checks whether there
is already a current .fasl file, loading it if there
is. You can override this behavior and force
recompilation by setting the global variable
*compile-all* to a non-NIL value.

(defvar *compile-all* nil)

(defun compile-and-load (filename)
  (let* ((file (purify-filename filename))
         (source (concatenate 'simple-string
                              file
                              ".lisp"))
         (fasl-folder (concatenate 'simple-string
                                   (directory-namestring filename)
                                   "fasls:"))
         (fasl-artifact (concatenate 'simple-string
                                     file
                                     ".fasl"))
       t)
      (delete-file fasl-artifact))
    (when (or *compile-all* 
              (not (probe-file fasl))
              (< (file-write-date fasl)
                 (file-write-date source)))
      (and (not (probe-file fasl-folder))
           (probe-file source)
           (create-file fasl-folder))
      (set-mini-buffer *top-listener* "Recompiling ~A..."
                       (pathname-name source))
      (compile-file source :output-file fasl :verbose t)
      (set-mini-buffer *top-listener*  ""))
   mestring fname))
         (filename (pathname-name fname))
         (filetype (pathname-type fname)))
    (if (null filetype)
      fname
      (if (or (string= filetype "fasl")
              (string= filetype "lisp"))
        (concatenate 'simple-string
                     directory-path
                     filename)
        (error "The pathname ~S specifies an alien file type;~%Use a file with extension '.fasl' or '.lisp'.")))))


(defun get-path-from-user ()
  (make-pathname
   :directory (pathname-directory (choose-file-dialog))))