[Gardeners] Introduction and suggestion

[Tim Cross]

Paolo Amoroso writes:
 > Tim Cross <tcross at rapttech.com.au> writes:
 > 
 > > 	1. Writers of packages which contain implementation specific code
 > >        should put compile directives in that will either throw and
 > >        error or warn the user if the variant they are using is not
 > >        supported. 
 > 
 > Or perhaps collect all implementation-dependent code in a single
 > place.

Yes, I think you should do this anyway. However, I think its important
to have the compile directives - especially ones which warn if your
implementation is not supported. Its not always obvious, especially
when using a platform like Debian that has good lisp support, exactly
which packages are supported by which lisp implementations. 
 
 > 
 > > 	2. The main reason other lisp implementations are not supported is
 > >        because the package depends heavily on sockets and there isn't
 > >        a good standard abstraction for sockets - every implementation
 > >        does it differently. We need a good standardised socket library
 > >        IMO. 
 > 
 > Someone is working on it:
 > 
 >   Reddit and Lisp psychosis
 >   http://www.findinglisp.com/blog/2005/12/reddit-and-lisp-psychosis.html
 > 

An interesting blog and a great article. thanks for the link.

Tim