CLISP, like other CL implementations, loads an initialization file on start-up. This file is called .clisprc and must be located in the user’s home directory, which is C:\ by default on Windows. There are a couple of tips to make this work in an optimal way:

1. It is possible to create a HOME environment variable on Windows, to change the default home directory from C:\. Right click on the My Computer desktop icon -> Advanced -> Environment variables, and create a new variable, calling it HOME. I set it to C:\eli\home
2. Now go to the directory chosen as HOME and create a new file named .clisprc. Windows might be reluctant to let you do it (because by its standards, it doesn’t have a name, only an extension). So create a dummy file (say xxxx), then “cmd” into the directory and execute mv xxxx .clisprc. This should work.
3. Edit .clisprc, and add this line to make sure it works:

   
   (print "Hi from .clisprc")
   

   Now, when you run your CLISP it will hopefully print out something like:

   
   ;; Loading file C:\eli\home\.clisprc ...
   "Hi from .clisprc"
   ;; Loaded file C:\eli\home\.clisprc
   [1]>
   

Related posts:

1. Variable initialization in C++
2. Bison looking for bison.simple on Windows
3. Setting the first day of the week in the Windows XP calendar
4. Windows automation with AutoHotKey
5. Compiling SQLite on Windows

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 8th, 2007 at 18:49 and is filed under Lisp. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.