Unable to use documented method of loading packages

Asked by David A. Cobb

Several packages in the "cl-*" group give instructions such as this (from cl-hyperobject/README):
Installing hyperobject into your CL implementation that uses
Debian's Common Lisp Controller is easy. Just enter

(clc:require 'hyperobject)

and a precompiled version of hyperobject should be loaded.

 -- Kevin M. Rosenberg <email address hidden>, Sun, 2 Aug 2009 04:24:17 -0600

Now, I have SBCL and CLISP (and a few others) installed. Lately I'm trying to use CLISP.
If I try the function above, I get:
(clc:require "cl-asdf")

*** - READ from
      #<INPUT CONCATENATED-STREAM #<INPUT STRING-INPUT-STREAM> #<IO TERMINAL-STREAM>>:
      #<PACKAGE COMMON-LISP-CONTROLLER> has no external symbol with name "REQUIRE"
The following restarts are available:
ABORT :R1 Abort main loop
Break 1 [3]>

;;; NOW TRY USING A NAME I PICKED UP IN A DIFFERENT README:
[4]> (clc:clc-require "cl-asdf")

*** - EVAL: undefined function COMMON-LISP-CONTROLLER:CLC-REQUIRE
The following restarts are available:
USE-VALUE :R1 Input a value
=================
Also, the common-lisp-controller/DESIGN.txt tells me:
<blockquote> -- markup for human understanding!
Common Lisp Implementations::

 Implementations should:
 - install a script /usr/lib/common-lisp/bin/<impl>.sh that has the following
   commands:
  /usr/lib/common-lisp/bin/<impl>.sh install-clc
   This should load /usr/share/common-lisp/source/common-lisp-controller/common-lisp-controller.lisp
   then call
(common-lisp-controller:init-common-lisp-controller-v4 "<name of implementation>")
   and then save the resulting image as default for the system for implementations that do
   not support a 'dump the current running image as new image' there is a v5 interface. See the
   ecl implementation for an example.
 - after install call "/usr/sbin/register-common-lisp-implementation <implementation>"
 - before removal call "/usr/sbin/unregister-common-lisp-implementation <implementation>"
 - should load /etc/lisp-config.lisp on startup.
</blockquote>

However, /usr/lib/common-lisp/bin/... doesn't contain anything at all.

SO, clearly neither the documentation nor the packages themselves appear to be in sync and I really can't figure how to get any of this working without digging into the sources. I will probably do some of that, but doing so won't necessarily make the situation better -- especially if I do it according to my own preferences.

The big question is: HOW CAN I HELP?
I'm a [semi-]retired Civil Serpent Computer Scientist, a competent LISP programmer, and a better-than-average wordsmith with both time and motivation to improve things. Mail me.

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