Which Distro?

[Levi Pearson]

On Sep 3, 2006, at 5:00 PM, Daniel C. wrote:

> Okay, I've got a Linode server with their minimal Debian distro on it,
> and it's just not doing it for me.  I'm trying to run the following:
>
> emacs/slime/sbcl, apache, mysql/postgresql, php/python, django, RoR,
> mod_python, mod_lisp... basically just messing around with a bunch of
> web frameworks in different languages.

I use Debian and Lisp, along with several other non-mainstream  
languages.  One of my blogs runs on sbcl with the tbnl web  
framework.  Your best bet with Lisp on any platform is to download  
things yourself and install them in /usr/local or /opt or wherever  
makes sense on your particular platform.  Programs like sbcl and  
slime change often enough that you won't want to rely on packagers,  
and the common-lisp-controller stuff in Debian, although kind of  
nifty, can get in your way.

Debian packages work best when for stuff that's fairly stable, and  
you want to have just work without thinking about it.  That's the way  
an operating system should be, at least in my opinion.  Sometimes the  
tools you want to use don't fit that criteria, though.  Especially  
when they're fairly obscure and don't have a huge community working  
on packaging them for different distros, it makes more sense to just  
build them yourself.

Anyway, I'd be happy to answer questions about using Lisp for web  
development, if you have any.

		--Levi