Custom Query (1030 matches)

I suggest that quotes should not be required when typing the directory name for the toplevel 'cd' command.

I am evaluating Clozure CL on x86 Windows. My 1st experience of it was trying to change my working directory so that I could load a lisp file. I typed :? and got some help. PWD worked as per the help given. CD DIR seemingly did not. Whatever I typed, I got errors. Didn't matter if it was cd C:/blah, :cd C:/blah, or :cd \blah. I started to think that the Clozure port on Windows might not be very reliable, since I had read it was relatively recent.

I pulled the latest Clozure version from SVN just in case this was a bug that had been fixed. I searched the bug tracker for entries. Only then did I notice that all examples were given as cd "X:/some/dirname" with quotes around the directory name. This is counter to typical command shell usage. I did figure out the necessity of the colon : escape mechanism; I don't begrudge that. But if I'm going to type a colon : escape, why should I have to type any more extra mumbo jumbo to get the command to behave like a shell command?

If it is not feasible to remove the quoting requirement, the :? HELP should at least say CD "DIR" and give an example, so that a new user knows that they have to type quotes around the directory name.

The toplevel currently has "cd" and "pwd" commands. It is fairly natural when navigating a file system hierarchy, to look at the contents of a directory to figure out where to navigate to next. A simple "dir" or "ls" command that lists the contents of the directory, and whether items are files or folders that one can "cd" to, would be convenient. Otherwise one must maintain a separate OS window to do the navigation, and one must "double type" any pathnames to keep things in synch. It is less convenient.

Such a command would be good for a non-Lisp user's first impressions of CCL.

SLSIA.

Welcome to Clozure Common Lisp Version 1.7-dev-r14715M-trunk  (DarwinX8664)!
? (defconstant x 1)
X
? (defvar x)  ; Should signal an error but doesn't
X
? (defvar x 1)
> Error: Can't redefine constant X .