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 &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>Allegro's DB interface (&aodbc;).</para></listitem>
 136       </itemizedlist>
 137     </sect2>
 138
 139   </sect1>
 140
 141   <sect1 id="installation">
 142     <title>Installation</title>
 143
 144     <sect2>
 145       <title>Ensure &asdf; is loaded</title>
 146       <para>
 147         Simply load the file <filename>asdf.lisp</filename>.
 148         <screen>
 149 (load "asdf.lisp")
 150         </screen>
 151       </para>
 152     </sect2>
 153
 154     <sect2>
 155       <title>Build &c; helper libraries</title>
 156       <para>&clsql; uses functions that require 64-bit integer
 157         parameters and return values. The &ffi; in most &clsql;
 158         implementations do not support 64-bit integers. Thus, C helper
 159         libraries are required to break these 64-bit integers into two compatible
 160         32-bit integers. The helper libraries reside in the directories
 161         <filename>uffi</filename> and <filename>db-mysql</filename>.
 162       </para>
 163
 164       <sect3>
 165         <title>&mswindows;</title>
 166         <para>
 167           Files named <filename>Makefile.msvc</filename> are supplied
 168           for building the libraries under Microsoft Windows.  Since
 169           &mswindows; does not come with that compiler, compiled
 170           <type>DLL</type> and <type>LIB</type> library files are
 171           supplied with &clsql;.
 172         </para>
 173       </sect3>
 174
 175       <sect3>
 176         <title>&unix;</title>
 177         <para>
 178           Files named <filename>Makefile</filename> are supplied for
 179           building the libraries under &unix;. Loading the
 180           <filename>.asd</filename> files automatically invokes
 181           <application>make</application> when necessary. So, manual
 182           building of the helper libraries is not necessary on most
 183           &unix; systems. However, the location of the &mysql; library
 184           files and include files may need to adjusted in
 185           <filename>db-mysql/Makefile</filename> on non-Debian
 186           systems.
 187         </para>
 188       </sect3>
 189
 190     </sect2>
 191
 192     <sect2>
 193       <title>Load &uffi;</title>
 194       <para>
 195         Unzip or untar the &uffi; distribution which creates a directory
 196         for the &uffi; files. Add that directory to &asdf;'s <varname>asdf:*central-registry*</varname>.
 197         You can do that by pushing the pathname of the directory onto this variable.
 198         The following example code assumes the &uffi; files reside in the
 199         <filename>/usr/share/lisp/uffi/</filename>
 200         directory.
 201         <screen>
 202 (push #P"/usr/share/lisp/uffi/" asdf:*central-registry*)
 203 (asdf:operate 'asdf:load-op :uffi)
 204         </screen>
 205       </para>
 206     </sect2>
 207    <sect2>
 208      <title>Load &md5; module</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 (asdf:operate 'asdf:load-op :md5)
 221        </screen>
 222      </para>
 223    </sect2>
 224
 225    <sect2>
 226      <title>Load &clsql; modules</title>
 227      <para>
 228        Unzip or untar the &clsql; distribution which creates a
 229        directory for the &clsql; files. Add that directory to &asdf;'s
 230        <varname>asdf:*central-registry*</varname>.  You can do that by
 231        pushing the pathname of the directory onto this variable.  The
 232        following example code assumes the &clsql; files reside in the
 233        <filename>/usr/share/lisp/clsql/</filename> directory. You need
 234        to load, at a minimum, the main <symbol>clsql</symbol> system
 235        and at least one interface system. The below example show loading
 236        all &clsql; systems.
 237
 238         <screen>
 239 (push #P"/usr/share/lisp/clsql/" asdf:*central-registry*)
 240 (asdf:operate 'asdf:load-op 'clsql)                   ; main CLSQL package
 241 (asdf:operate 'asdf:load-op 'clsql-mysql)             ; MySQL interface
 242 (asdf:operate 'asdf:load-op 'clsql-postgresql)        ; PostgreSQL interface
 243 (asdf:operate 'asdf:load-op 'clsql-postgresql-socket) ; Socket PGSQL interface
 244 (asdf:operate 'asdf:load-op 'clsql-odbc)              ; ODBC interface
 245 (asdf:operate 'asdf:load-op 'clsql-sqlite)            ; SQLite interface
 246 (asdf:operate 'asdf:load-op 'clsql-aodbc)             ; Allegro ODBC interface
 247         </screen>
 248       </para>
 249     </sect2>
 250
 251     <sect2>
 252       <title>Run test suite</title>
 253       <para>
 254         After loading &clsql;, you can execute the test suite. A
 255         configuration file named
 256         <filename>.clsql-test.config</filename> must be created in
 257         your home directory. There are instructures on the format of
 258         that file in the <filename>tests/README</filename>. After
 259         creating <filename>.clsql-test.config</filename>, you can run
 260         the test suite with &asdf;:
 261         <screen>
 262           (asdf:operate 'asdf:test-op 'clsql)
 263         </screen>
 264       </para>
 265     </sect2>
 266
 267   </sect1>
 268
 269 </chapter>
 270