doc/intro.xml

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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
  17       <application>CommonSQL</application>
  18       package by Xanalys.
  19     </para>
  20   </sect1>
  21
  22   <sect1 id="history">
  23     <title>History</title>
  24     <para>
  25       &clsql; is written by Kevin M. Rosenberg in 2001 and was based
  26       substantially on Pierre R. Mai's excellent &maisql; package. In
  27       April 2004, Marcus Pearce ported the UncommonSQL to &clsql;
  28       which provides a CommonSQL-compatible API for &clsql;. The main
  29       changes from &maisql; are:
  30       <itemizedlist>
  31         <listitem>
  32           <para>port from the &cmucl; FFI to &uffi;.</para>
  33         </listitem>
  34         <listitem>
  35           <para>Optimized loading of integer and floating-point fields.</para>
  36         </listitem>
  37         <listitem>
  38           <para>new &acl; ODBC interface back-end.</para>
  39         </listitem>
  40         <listitem>
  41           <para>compatibility layer for &cmucl; specific code.</para>
  42         </listitem>
  43         <listitem>
  44           <para>much improved robustness for the &mysql; back-end
  45           along with version 4 client library support.</para>
  46         </listitem>
  47         <listitem>
  48           <para>improved system loading.</para>
  49         </listitem>
  50         <listitem>
  51           <para>improved packages and symbol export.</para>
  52         </listitem>
  53         <listitem>
  54           <para>transaction support.</para>
  55         </listitem>
  56         <listitem>
  57           <para>UncommonSQL support.</para>
  58         </listitem>
  59       </itemizedlist>
  60     </para>
  61   </sect1>
  62
  63   <sect1 id="prerequisites">
  64     <title>Prerequisites</title>
  65
  66     <sect2>
  67       <title>&asdf;</title>
  68       <para>
  69         &clsql; uses &asdf; to compile and load its components.
  70         &asdf; is included in the <ulink
  71         url="http://cclan.sourceforge.net"><citetitle>&cclan;</citetitle></ulink>
  72         collection.
  73       </para>
  74     </sect2>
  75
  76     <sect2>
  77       <title>&uffi;</title>
  78       <para>
  79         &clsql; uses <ulink
  80         url="http://uffi.b9.com/"><citetitle>&uffi;</citetitle></ulink>
  81         as a <emphasis>Foreign Function Interface</emphasis>
  82         (<glossterm linkend="gloss-ffi">FFI</glossterm>) to support
  83         multiple &cl; implementations.
  84       </para>
  85     </sect2>
  86
  87     <sect2>
  88       <title>&md5;</title>
  89       <para>&clsql;'s postgresql-socket interface uses Pierre Mai's
  90         <ulink url="ftp://clsql.b9.com/">md5</ulink>
  91         module.
  92       </para>
  93     </sect2>
  94     <sect2>
  95       <title>Supported Common Lisp Implementation</title>
  96       <para>
  97         The implementations that support &clsql; is governed by the supported
  98         implementations of &uffi;. The following implementations are supported:
  99       </para>
 100       <itemizedlist mark="opencircle">
 101         <listitem><para>&acl; v6.2 on Debian Linux, FreeBSD 4.5, and Microsoft Windows XP.</para></listitem>
 102         <listitem><para>&lw; v4.3 on Debian Linux and Microsoft Windows XP.</para></listitem>
 103         <listitem><para>&cmucl; 18e on Debian Linux, FreeBSD 4.5, and Solaris 2.8.</para></listitem>
 104         <listitem><para>&sbcl; 0.8.5 on Debian Linux.</para></listitem>
 105         <listitem><para>&scl; 1.1.1 on Debian Linux.</para></listitem>
 106         <listitem><para>&openmcl; 0.14 on Debian Linux PowerPC.</para></listitem>
 107       </itemizedlist>
 108     </sect2>
 109
 110     <sect2>
 111       <title>Supported &sql; Implementation</title>
 112       <para>
 113         Currently, &clsql; supports the following databases:
 114       </para>
 115       <itemizedlist mark="opencircle">
 116         <listitem><para>&mysql; v3.23.51 and v4.0.15.</para></listitem>
 117         <listitem><para>&postgresql; v7.2 with both direct API and TCP
 118         socket connections.</para></listitem>
 119         <listitem><para>&sqlite;.</para></listitem>
 120         <listitem><para>Allegro's ODBC interface (&aodbc;) using iODBC
 121         ODBC manager.</para></listitem>
 122       </itemizedlist>
 123     </sect2>
 124
 125   </sect1>
 126
 127   <sect1 id="installation">
 128     <title>Installation</title>
 129
 130     <sect2>
 131       <title>Ensure &asdf; is loaded</title>
 132       <para>
 133         Simply load the file <filename>asdf.lisp</filename>.
 134         <screen>
 135 (load "asdf.lisp")
 136         </screen>
 137       </para>
 138     </sect2>
 139
 140     <sect2>
 141       <title>Build &c; helper libraries</title>
 142       <para>&clsql; uses functions that require 64-bit integer
 143         parameters and return values. The &ffi; in most &clsql;
 144         implementations do not support 64-bit integers. Thus, C helper
 145         libraries are required to break these 64-bit integers into two compatible
 146         32-bit integers. The helper libraries reside in the directories
 147         <filename>uffi</filename> and <filename>db-mysql</filename>.
 148       </para>
 149
 150       <sect3>
 151         <title>&mswindows;</title>
 152         <para>
 153           Files named <filename>Makefile.msvc</filename> are supplied
 154           for building the libraries under Microsoft Windows.  Since
 155           &mswindows; does not come with that compiler, compiled
 156           <type>DLL</type> and <type>LIB</type> library files are
 157           supplied with &clsql;.
 158         </para>
 159       </sect3>
 160
 161       <sect3>
 162         <title>&unix;</title>
 163         <para>
 164           Files named <filename>Makefile</filename> are supplied for
 165           building the libraries under &unix;. Loading the
 166           <filename>.asd</filename> files automatically invokes
 167           <application>make</application> when necessary. So, manual
 168           building of the helper libraries is not necessary on most
 169           &unix; systems. However, the location of the &mysql; library
 170           files and include files may need to adjusted in
 171           <filename>db-mysql/Makefile</filename> on non-Debian
 172           systems.
 173         </para>
 174       </sect3>
 175
 176     </sect2>
 177
 178     <sect2>
 179       <title>Load &uffi;</title>
 180       <para>
 181         Unzip or untar the &uffi; distribution which creates a directory
 182         for the &uffi; files. Add that directory to &asdf;'s <varname>asdf:*central-registry*</varname>.
 183         You can do that by pushing the pathname of the directory onto this variable.
 184         The following example code assumes the &uffi; files reside in the
 185         <filename>/usr/share/lisp/uffi/</filename>
 186         directory.
 187         <screen>
 188 (push #P"/usr/share/lisp/uffi/" asdf:*central-registry*)
 189 (asdf:operate 'asdf:load-op :uffi)
 190         </screen>
 191       </para>
 192     </sect2>
 193    <sect2>
 194      <title>Load &md5; module</title>
 195      <para>
 196        If you plan to use the clsql-postgresql-socket interface, you
 197        must load the md5 module.  Unzip or untar the cl-md5
 198        distribution, which creates a directory for the cl-md5 files.
 199        Add that directory to &asdf;'s
 200        <varname>asdf:*central-registry*</varname>.  You can do that by
 201        pushing the pathname of the directory onto this variable.  The
 202        following example code assumes the cl-md5 files reside in the
 203        <filename>/usr/share/lisp/cl-md5/</filename> directory.
 204        <screen>
 205 (push #P"/usr/share/lisp/cl-md5/" asdf:*central-registry*)
 206 (asdf:operate 'asdf:load-op :md5)
 207        </screen>
 208      </para>
 209    </sect2>
 210
 211    <sect2>
 212      <title>Load &clsql; modules</title>
 213      <para>
 214        Unzip or untar the &clsql; distribution which creates a
 215        directory for the &clsql; files. Add that directory to &asdf;'s
 216        <varname>asdf:*central-registry*</varname>.  You can do that by
 217        pushing the pathname of the directory onto this variable.  The
 218        following example code assumes the &clsql; files reside in the
 219        <filename>/usr/share/lisp/clsql/</filename> directory. You need
 220        to load, at a minimum, the main <symbol>clsql</symbol> system
 221        and at least one interface system. The below example show loading
 222        all &clsql; systems.
 223
 224         <screen>
 225 (push #P"/usr/share/lisp/clsql/" asdf:*central-registry*)
 226 (asdf:operate 'asdf:load-op 'clsql-base)              ; base CLSQL package
 227 (asdf:operate 'asdf:load-op 'clsql-mysql)             ; MySQL interface
 228 (asdf:operate 'asdf:load-op 'clsql-postgresql)        ; PostgreSQL interface
 229 (asdf:operate 'asdf:load-op 'clsql-postgresql-socket) ; Socket PGSQL interface
 230 (asdf:operate 'asdf:load-op 'clsql-aodbc)             ; Allegro ODBC interface
 231 (asdf:operate 'asdf:load-op 'clsql)                   ; main CLSQL package
 232         </screen>
 233       </para>
 234     </sect2>
 235
 236     <sect2>
 237       <title>Run test suite</title>
 238       <para>
 239         After loading &clsql;, you can execute the test suite. A
 240         configuration file named
 241         <filename>.clsql-test.config</filename> must be created in
 242         your home directory. There are instructures on the format of
 243         that file in the <filename>tests/tests.lisp</filename> file in
 244         the &clsql; source directory. After creating that file, you
 245         can run the test suite with &asdf;:
 246         <screen>
 247           (asdf:operate 'asdf:test-op 'clsql)
 248         </screen>
 249       </para>
 250     </sect2>
 251
 252   </sect1>
 253
 254 </chapter>
 255