Using Lisp in Windows

The past two years or so I've been learning and using Lisp. I have to use it in Windows sometimes, and I've found that getting Lisp running in MS Windows is hard. I mean a free version of lisp hooked into Emacs/SLIME with asdf support. I know about Lisp in a box , but I found that the default setup put things in places that were hard to find when I used lisp outside Lisp in a Box. So I've scoured the web and put together a step-by-step to getting Lisp going in Windows. I use CLISP and SBCL

I have benefited a lot from Bill Clementson's blog, and have 'borrowed' some instructions and the elisp code to start SLIME in Emacs from him (thanks!). Really, that may be enough information to get most people going, but there are a few other steps here that may be helpful.

I've used these instructions for both Windows XP and Vista. You'll need something to unpack .tar.gz file (I use 7-Zip)

1. Setting up Windows
   
   
   
   • Make sure your HOME environment variable points to your home directory. For me, this is:
     

     
             c:\Documents and Settings\ben (in XP)
             c:\Users\ben (in Vista)
     



2. Installing Emacs
   
   
   
   • Install Emacs 22. Don't use XEmacs. Nothing personal, but as of two weeks ago it couldn't make system calls in Vista.
   
   


3. Installing SLIME
   
   
   
   • Create a cl-library\site directory in your HOME directory. (C:\Users\ben\cl-library\site in Vista)
   
   
   • Download and install SLIME to HOME\cl-library\site\slime


4. Installing Lisps
   
   
   NOTE: I think I've had trouble with emacs making system calls
   with spaces in the pathnames, so modify the default
   install locations to have no spaces.
   
   • Install SBCL to c:\sbcl
   
   
   • If you have previously installed sbcl to another location, uninstall it, and make sure that the environment variables are cleared out.
   
   
   • Install CLISP. At the time I'm writing this, the default location is OK.


5. Installing ASDF
   
   
   SBCL comes with asdf, so skip to step 4 if you only plan to use SBCL.
   
   
   1. Install CVS if you don't have it. (You'll need the latest version if you're behind a firewall)
   
   
   2. Open a command prompt and change to the HOME\cl-library directory. CVS will check out the asdf library to this location.
   
   
   3. Install asdf from CVS. The cliki page has a link to directions. Here is what I did:
      

      
      cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@cclan.cvs.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/cclan login
      cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@cclan.cvs.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/cclan co -P asdf
      

   
   
   4. To use this from the REPL type:
      

      
      (load "C:/Users/bholm1/cl-library/asdftools.lisp")
      



6. Initialization Files
   
   
   
   • Read through and follow Bill Clementson's directions for CLISP (I'll see if I can't get permission to post my version here)
   
   
   • Add an SBCL function right before or after the clisp function:
     

     
     ;; SBCL
     ;; Note that the CLISP version is part of the path
     (defun sbcl ()
       (interactive)
       (setq inferior-lisp-program (concat bin-dir "sbcl/1.0.6/sbcl.exe"
                                           " --core " bin-dir "sbcl/1.0.6/sbcl.core"))
       (load "slime"))
     

   
   
   • Create a file HOME\.clisprc.lisp with the contents (don't forget to adjust the path):
     

     
     (nconc CUSTOM:*LOAD-PATHS* (list #P"c:\\Users\\ben\\cl-library\\**\\"))
     

   
   
   • You SHOULD be able to load SLIME at this point. Run emacs and:
     

     
             M-X sbcl
             M-x slime
     

     
     .... OR ....
     

     
             M-x clisp
             M-x slime
     

Ok. You're up and running. Let me know if you have any trouble with these directions. As I get corrections / suggestions I update this. Good luck!!