From: Mikko Heikelä
Subject: What do you record as dependencies in asdf?
Date: 
Message-ID: <Pine.OSF.4.61.0505182318280.448853@kosh.hut.fi>
Hello all,

Since the style guide for .asd files is still just an entry in the 
todo list in ASDF Manual, I would like to ask about your practices 
regarding dependencies between files.

I have just lately started using asdf for my own projects in addition 
to loading some of many nice libraries available for CL.  At first I 
declared lots of dependencies between my source files, based on what 
functions are called from where, without realizing that it is not 
really necessary to load or compile the files in that order.  Then I 
understood that a lot less will suffice, but I don't know if 
minimalism really is the way to go here.

My question is: What do you write as dependencies in system definition 
files?

Do you write just the necessary dependencies such as those on package 
or macro definitions, defparameter/-var forms or inline functions?

Others?

Do you try to write explicitly all of those, or do you just depend on 
e.g. macros.lisp and rely on it depending on package.lisp?  The latter 
way would seem like a potential source of problems when the 
dependencies change.

How do you know what the dependencies really are?  Only half joking.

Any other related advice on how to make good use of a 
system definition facility is naturally welcome.

Thanks,

  -Mikko Heikel�