The project is still alive. The last time I checked it looked a little dead, but now that I've checked out the mailing list archives, it looks like it's still alive. Awesome awesome :D
cl-terrace
Thanks to the list, I've discovered another web application framework for Common Lisp called cl-terrace. It's a Model-View-Controller framework (aren't they all?) with only the View-Controller part covered. I'm not sure exactly how that works, but it uses the Hunchentoot web server, and djula, a Common Lisp template engine based on the Django templating language which is nice.
The documentation for djula should be generated by the developer since the API is apparently changing around quite a bit. Djula looks like it handles internationalization and translations in a sane way. You specify translations using a dictionary (a.k.a. hash-table), the example shows how to do this.
cl-terrace is ASDF-installable in case you're itching to try it out. Using SBCL, run this:
(require 'asdf) (require 'asdf-install) (asdf-install:install 'cl-terrace)to install it.
Ruby
On another note, a Ruby note, Chris Wanstrath of GitHub fame presented a keynote at the 2008 Ruby Hoedown about side projects where he said,
First off, the time issue. I don't know how many of you read RSS, but I challenge you (that's a keynote term) to give it up for a month. Just turn it off...What should you do instead? ...let other people do the filtering for you. Use your time for other things.
It's a good keynote and lots of communities could learn a thing or two from the Ruby community. The optimism of the community has to be balanced out as Unspace's Pete Forde says,
Folks in Ruby tend to write a lot of nostalgic, self-aggrandizing bullshit, though. You see a lot of "MY MY, THE COMMUNITY HAS EVOLVED INTO SOMETHING SPECIAL" and talk of changing the history of software development. I'm all for progress, and as a musician, I understand the function of hype in generating momentum. But sometimes we need to get real and be a little more harsh in our own self-analysis.
Anyway, off to write some code.
