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. Bison looking for bison.simple on Windows
2. Variable initialization in C++
3. irb tab completion
4. Windows automation with AutoHotKey
5. Integrating the Platform SDK into MS Visual C++ Express

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 8th, 2007 at 6:49 pm and is filed under Lisp. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.