weblocks, finally!
Apr 19, 2010I have a little web app in mind so I decided to experiment with Weblocks, a continuations-based web framework in Common Lisp, which has been on my list of cool things to check out. I’m on OSX and it’s been a true experience in yak shaving.
- The easiest method is to install it via clbuild. Except there’s no tarball.
- The clbuild repo is in darcs. Ok, I’ll build it from macports. Except, the dependencies are broken.
- Mix and match versions, local port repo, a couple of patches. Nada. Drop back to older release. At least I didn’t have to fight with ghc. Ok, off and running again.
- Nope, need mercurial. Ok, build that.
- Oops, rebuild SBCL to include threading. Really ready now!
- No luck- problems with cl-json and symbols have changed names in parenscript. Great, fix that to find…
- What? Some deps don’t build properly within clbuild. Ok, build them one at a time.
- Problems with hunchentoot, so pull the latest and build.
- Wrong, need a newer version of chunga, build that too.
- Try newer versions of various deps.
- Try older versions of various deps.
- Rebuild several deps by hand, skipping clbuild entirely.
Lather, rinse, repeat a few times starting at step #7. Sleep. Work. Hack. Curse. Hack. Drink. Sleep. Work. Hack. Curse.
Finally, for no obvious reason it’s working!
!http://www.lonsteins.com/blog/images/20.png (weblocks demo)!
I’ll follow up with the (current, as of today) magic combination of versions and build steps but I first need to balance the cursing with drinking.