Package and Resource Directory

CL Gardeners project proposal -- proposed: January 8, 2006; accepted: January 10, 2006

Champion

Paolo Amoroso

Team Members

Full name, specific tasks (if any), CLD user name (optional)

Background

Marc Battyani created a web site called The Common Lisp Directory (CLD). It is a publicly accessible database of Common Lisp software and resources, both open-source and commercial.

Registered users can submit to CLD short HTML documents and entries for web resources, software and libraries, Common Lisp implementations, persons, organizations, events. Comments and notes may be added to entries. Submissions are subject to approval by administrators, except for notes and comments. Entries have lists of tags and related items. Tags are organized in a hierarchy for easier access. Both the tag/related items lists and the tag hierarchy are extensible.

Marc has written and enhances the Lisp software that runs the CLD. He also provides and maintains the hardware and software infrastructure of the site.

Goals

The goal of this project is to help Marc maintain the CLD database by adding new entries and keeping existing ones up to date. Having a rich database of libraries and resources may simplify the search for reusable code, increase the adoption of Lisp by new users, help reverse the reputation of Lisp as a language with few libraries, and provide a base for a CPAN-like infrastructure.

The goal is considered fulfilled if at least 500 new entries will be added to CLD within 3 months from the project start (this milestone was reached on 21 February 2006).

How to Contribute

Contribution is open to anybody, at any time.

Potential contributors should first create an account at The Common Lisp Directory and add themselves to the list of volunteers. They are also advised to join the project mailing list, which will be used for coordinating the work, discussing submission guidelines and standards, providing updates on CLD, helping new contributors, and all other issues related to the project.

Volunteers will add new CLD entries and/or update existing ones by following the submission guidelines. They will be loosely organized and autonomously decide which entries to work on. Coordination and duplication avoidance, especially for large numbers of submissions, will be reached by stating in the submission guidelines page which groups of resources one plans to work on (e.g. with a note saying "I am adding the libraries by author Joe List").

Another potential task is to provide usage feedback on the site by posting bug reports, suggesting improvements to information presentation and layout, etc. These contributions should be sent to the mailing list.

Volunteers are advised to check the existence of an entry before submitting it. Also, particular attention should be paid to the accuracy and completeness of submissions. It may for example be necessary to check a library's source code in order to get some information on it.

Modifications to the organization of CLD, such as the creation of new tags or the movement of tags in the hierarchy, should be requested to a CLD administrator (Paolo Amoroso or Marc Battyani). Such requests may be posted to the mailing list.

CLD should contain only entries related to Common Lisp. Entries about other Lisp dialects or languages are acceptable as long as they support Common Lisp software. An example is the Emacs-based SLIME, which is largely based on Emacs Lisp but implements a Common Lisp IDE.

What the Green Thumbs think

Brad says: Very good project page, I'm giving (see * below) my Green Thumb up :) The only think that is stopping me is that I don't understand how the CLD works. Is it a wiki? Is it a ranking system? I think there ought to be a paragraph that explains what the CLD itself is. I'm writing this without having much more than a quick look at the CLD - but it looks a little intimidating.
(*)In fact Brad said "I am so close to giving my Green Thumb up :)" but you can't trust wikis... Marc ;-)

Replying to Brad

"I don't understand how the CLD works." Feel free to ask questions
"Is it a wiki?" No. It is moderated excepted for Notes and Comments. Anybody can submit anything but a maintainer has to validate it.
"Is it a ranking system?" No though you can use LinkIt for that.
"I think there ought to be a paragraph that explains what the CLD itself is." Yes
"I'm writing this without having much more than a quick look at the CLD - but it looks a little intimidating." Hum...
Marc Battyani

Motto

The sky is the limit.

Resources

Categories

Gardeners Projects

This page is linked from:

Gardeners Package Repository Gardeners Projects Gardeners Resource Directory
Other pages sharing this page's categories:

Application Builder Common Lisp FAQ Gardeners Reports Perl interface to SLIME Portable Threads Securing ASDF Slim-Vim Slim-Vim-Repos Standard Utilities