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   7
   8 <chapter id="introduction">
   9   <title>Introduction</title>
  10
  11   <sect1 id="purpose">
  12     <title>Purpose</title>
  13     <para>&clsql; is a Common Lisp interface to <glossterm
  14     linkend="gloss-sql">SQL</glossterm> databases.  A number of Common
  15     Lisp implementations and SQL databases are supported. The general
  16     structure of &clsql; is based on the &commonsql; package by
  17     Xanalys.
  18     </para>
  19   </sect1>
  20
  21   <sect1 id="history">
  22     <title>History</title>
  23     <para>
  24       The &clsql; project was started by Kevin M. Rosenberg in 2001 to
  25       support SQL access on multiple Common Lisp implementations using
  26       the &uffi; library. The initial code was based substantially on
  27       Pierre R. Mai's excellent &maisql; package. In late 2003, the
  28       &usql; library was orphaned by its author, onShore Development,
  29       Inc. In April 2004, Marcus Pearce ported the &usql; library to
  30       &clsql;.  The &usql; library provides a &commonsql;-compatible
  31       API for &clsql;.
  32     </para>
  33
  34     <para>The main changes from &maisql; and &usql; are:
  35       <itemizedlist>
  36         <listitem>
  37           <para>Port from the &cmucl; FFI to &uffi; which provide
  38           compatibility with the major Common Lisp
  39           implementations.</para>
  40         </listitem>
  41         <listitem>
  42           <para>Optimized loading of integer and floating-point fields.</para>
  43         </listitem>
  44         <listitem>
  45           <para>Additional database backends: &odbc;, &aodbc;, and &sqlite;.</para>
  46         </listitem>
  47         <listitem>
  48           <para>A compatibility layer for &cmucl; specific code.</para>
  49         </listitem>
  50         <listitem>
  51           <para>Much improved robustness for the &mysql; back-end
  52           along with version 4 client library support.</para>
  53         </listitem>
  54         <listitem>
  55           <para>Improved library loading and installation documentation.</para>
  56         </listitem>
  57         <listitem>
  58           <para>Improved packages and symbol export.</para>
  59         </listitem>
  60         <listitem>
  61           <para>Pooled connections.</para>
  62         </listitem>
  63         <listitem>
  64           <para>Integrated transaction support for the classic
  65           &maisql; iteration macros.</para>
  66         </listitem>
  67       </itemizedlist>
  68     </para>
  69   </sect1>
  70
  71   <sect1 id="prerequisites">
  72     <title>Prerequisites</title>
  73
  74     <sect2>
  75       <title>&asdf;</title>
  76       <para>
  77         &clsql; uses &asdf; to compile and load its components.
  78         &asdf; is included in the <ulink
  79         url="http://cclan.sourceforge.net"><citetitle>&cclan;</citetitle></ulink>
  80         collection.
  81       </para>
  82     </sect2>
  83
  84     <sect2>
  85       <title>&uffi;</title>
  86       <para>
  87         &clsql; uses <ulink
  88         url="http://uffi.b9.com/"><citetitle>&uffi;</citetitle></ulink>
  89         as a <emphasis>Foreign Function Interface</emphasis>
  90         (<glossterm linkend="gloss-ffi">FFI</glossterm>) to support
  91         multiple &cl; implementations.
  92       </para>
  93     </sect2>
  94
  95     <sect2>
  96       <title>&md5;</title>
  97       <para>&clsql;'s postgresql-socket interface uses Pierre Mai's
  98         <ulink url="ftp://clsql.b9.com/">md5</ulink>
  99         module.
 100       </para>
 101     </sect2>
 102     <sect2>
 103       <title>Supported Common Lisp Implementation</title>
 104       <para>
 105         The implementations that support &clsql; is governed by the supported
 106         implementations of &uffi;. The following implementations are supported:
 107       </para>
 108       <itemizedlist mark="opencircle">
 109         <listitem><para>&acl; v6.2 and 7.0b on Debian Linux x86 &amp;
 110         x86_64 &amp; PowerPC, FreeBSD 4.5, and Microsoft Windows
 111         XP.</para></listitem>
 112         <listitem><para>&lw; v4.3 on Debian Linux and Microsoft
 113         Windows XP.</para></listitem>
 114         <listitem><para>&cmucl; 18e on Debian Linux, FreeBSD 4.5, and
 115         Solaris 2.8.</para></listitem>
 116         <listitem><para>&sbcl; 0.8.5 on Debian
 117         Linux.</para></listitem>
 118         <listitem><para>&scl; 1.1.1 on Debian Linux.</para></listitem>
 119         <listitem><para>&openmcl; 0.14 on Debian Linux
 120         PowerPC.</para></listitem>
 121       </itemizedlist>
 122     </sect2>
 123
 124     <sect2>
 125       <title>Supported &sql; Implementation</title>
 126       <para>
 127         Currently, &clsql; supports the following databases:
 128       </para>
 129       <itemizedlist mark="opencircle">
 130         <listitem><para>&mysql; v3.23.51 and v4.0.18.</para></listitem>
 131         <listitem><para>&postgresql; v7.4 with both direct API and TCP
 132         socket connections.</para></listitem>
 133         <listitem><para>&sqlite;.</para></listitem>
 134         <listitem><para>Direct &odbc; interface.</para></listitem>
 135         <listitem><para>&oracle; OCI.</para></listitem>
 136         <listitem><para>Allegro's DB interface (&aodbc;).</para></listitem>
 137       </itemizedlist>
 138     </sect2>
 139
 140   </sect1>
 141
 142   <sect1 id="installation">
 143     <title>Installation</title>
 144
 145     <sect2>
 146       <title>Ensure &asdf; is loaded</title>
 147       <para>
 148         Simply load the file <filename>asdf.lisp</filename>.
 149         <screen>
 150 (load "asdf.lisp")
 151         </screen>
 152       </para>
 153     </sect2>
 154
 155     <sect2>
 156       <title>Build &c; helper libraries</title>
 157       <para>&clsql; uses functions that require 64-bit integer
 158         parameters and return values. The &ffi; in most &clsql;
 159         implementations do not support 64-bit integers. Thus, C helper
 160         libraries are required to break these 64-bit integers into two compatible
 161         32-bit integers. The helper libraries reside in the directories
 162         <filename>uffi</filename> and <filename>db-mysql</filename>.
 163       </para>
 164
 165       <sect3>
 166         <title>&mswindows;</title>
 167         <para>
 168           Files named <filename>Makefile.msvc</filename> are supplied
 169           for building the libraries under Microsoft Windows.  Since
 170           &mswindows; does not come with that compiler, compiled
 171           <type>DLL</type> and <type>LIB</type> library files are
 172           supplied with &clsql;.
 173         </para>
 174       </sect3>
 175
 176       <sect3>
 177         <title>&unix;</title>
 178         <para>
 179           Files named <filename>Makefile</filename> are supplied for
 180           building the libraries under &unix;. Loading the
 181           <filename>.asd</filename> files automatically invokes
 182           <application>make</application> when necessary. So, manual
 183           building of the helper libraries is not necessary on most
 184           &unix; systems. However, the location of the &mysql; library
 185           files and include files may need to adjusted in
 186           <filename>db-mysql/Makefile</filename> on non-Debian
 187           systems.
 188         </para>
 189       </sect3>
 190
 191     </sect2>
 192
 193     <sect2>
 194       <title>Add &uffi; path</title>
 195       <para>
 196         Unzip or untar the &uffi; distribution which creates a directory
 197         for the &uffi; files. Add that directory to &asdf;'s <varname>asdf:*central-registry*</varname>.
 198         You can do that by pushing the pathname of the directory onto this variable.
 199         The following example code assumes the &uffi; files reside in the
 200         <filename>/usr/share/lisp/uffi/</filename>
 201         directory.
 202         <screen>
 203 (push #P"/usr/share/lisp/uffi/" asdf:*central-registry*)
 204         </screen>
 205       </para>
 206     </sect2>
 207    <sect2>
 208      <title>Add &md5; path</title>
 209      <para>
 210        If you plan to use the clsql-postgresql-socket interface, you
 211        must load the md5 module.  Unzip or untar the cl-md5
 212        distribution, which creates a directory for the cl-md5 files.
 213        Add that directory to &asdf;'s
 214        <varname>asdf:*central-registry*</varname>.  You can do that by
 215        pushing the pathname of the directory onto this variable.  The
 216        following example code assumes the cl-md5 files reside in the
 217        <filename>/usr/share/lisp/cl-md5/</filename> directory.
 218        <screen>
 219 (push #P"/usr/share/lisp/cl-md5/" asdf:*central-registry*)
 220        </screen>
 221      </para>
 222    </sect2>
 223
 224    <sect2>
 225      <title>Add &clsql; path and load module</title>
 226      <para>
 227        Unzip or untar the &clsql; distribution which creates a
 228        directory for the &clsql; files. Add that directory to &asdf;'s
 229        <varname>asdf:*central-registry*</varname>.  You can do that by
 230        pushing the pathname of the directory onto this variable.  The
 231        following example code assumes the &clsql; files reside in the
 232        <filename>/usr/share/lisp/clsql/</filename> directory. You need
 233        to load the <symbol>clsql</symbol> system.
 234
 235         <screen>
 236 (push #P"/usr/share/lisp/clsql/" asdf:*central-registry*)
 237 (asdf:operate 'asdf:load-op 'clsql)                   ; main CLSQL package
 238         </screen>
 239       </para>
 240     </sect2>
 241
 242     <sect2>
 243       <title>Run test suite (optional)</title>
 244       <para>
 245         The test suite can be executed using the &asdf;
 246         <symbol>test-op</symbol> operator. If &clsql; has not been
 247         loaded with <symbol>asdf:load-op</symbol>, the
 248         <symbol>asdf:test-op</symbol> operator will automatically load
 249         &clsql;. A configuration file named
 250         <filename>.clsql-test.config</filename> must be created in
 251         your home directory. There are instructures on the format of
 252         that file in the <filename>tests/README</filename>. After
 253         creating <filename>.clsql-test.config</filename>, you can run
 254         the test suite with &asdf;:
 255         <screen>
 256           (asdf:operate 'asdf:test-op 'clsql)
 257         </screen>
 258       </para>
 259     </sect2>
 260
 261   </sect1>
 262
 263 </chapter>
 264