Projects

Open or create a project #

Open a folder with Open Project… (⌘O), or create one with New Project (⇧⌘N). Both are in the File menu, with Open Recent and Close Project, and in the menu under the project's name in the title bar. Leaving a project with unsaved files asks to save them first.

A new project has an ASDF system, a test system, and an executable build target. Its language is Common Lisp or Coalton. It takes its dependencies from Quicklisp, or from ocicl with each version pinned in ocicl.csv. To use ocicl, run brew install ocicl and ocicl setup once.

Dependencies #

ZParen finds the dependency manager from the files in the project root:

Found in the root	Manager	Dependencies come from
`qlfile`	qlot	`.qlot/setup.lisp`, after Install Dependencies runs `qlot install`
`ocicl.csv` or `ocicl/`	ocicl	ocicl's runtime, which fetches missing systems as they load
`vendor/`, `lib/`, `third_party/`, or `deps/` holding `.asd` files	vendor	those directories, added to the ASDF source registry
none of the above	Quicklisp	`~/quicklisp`, `~/.quicklisp`, or Roswell's Quicklisp

The Packages tab lists what the project's systems depend on, with each one's version, where it comes from and whether it is loaded. It adds and removes dependencies, updates one (with ocicl or qlot) or all of them, and with ocicl pins a dependency to any version the registry offers.

qlot and ocicl replace the global Quicklisp, so a project with a qlfile or ocicl.csv does not load it.

Systems #

The Systems sidebar lists every system in the project's .asd files. Each has four buttons:

Run loads the system and calls its :entry-point in the REPL, the way its built program would start.
Load loads the system and fetches its dependencies.
Test runs asdf:test-system.
Build runs asdf:make in a separate SBCL and streams the output to the Output panel.

Startup images #

A startup image is an SBCL core saved with the project's systems loaded, so Lisp starts with them instead of loading them again. It is built in a separate SBCL, and the running Lisp is not touched.

Save startup image in the title bar saves one. The button shows while the project has no image, and says Startup image out of date when the image no longer matches. Hover it to see why.
When only the project's files changed, Lisp still starts from the old image, then compiles what changed. An image built on another version of ZParen or SBCL is not used.
Settings ▸ Lisp ▸ Startup image saves, saves again or deletes the project's image.
Keep up to date saves the image again after each load in a separate SBCL. Loading the project there runs its load-time code a second time.
Delete all startup images… deletes every project's image and ZParen's cached base cores.