Babel Wiki

This site uses Just the Docs, a documentation theme for Jekyll.

Installing Babel on Linux (Debian-based)

These instructions assume you have already installed the dependencies and you have downloaded Babel on your computer. Follow these additional steps to configure your Linux computer for Babel development:

  • Install a Common Lisp implementation. Babel supports LispWorks, Clozure Common Lisp (CCL) and Steel Bank Common Lisp (SBCL). Both CCL and SBCL are freely available and can be easily installed. When you are a novel Lisp user, we recommend installing CCL. To install CCL, please follow the instructions here. SBCL is available through apt-get:
sudo apt-get install sbcl
  • Install Emacs using apt-get:
sudo apt-get install emacs
  • Use git clone to get the latest version of Slime. We will assume Slime is placed in your home directory, but you can place this anywhere you want.
git clone https://github.com/slime/slime.git
  • For configuring your Emacs, use a text editor to create a plain text file called .emacs (without extension). This file must be placed in your home directory. Copy the contents below in your .emacs file. Replace <SLIME> by the path to the Slime directory on your machine and <LISP> by the path to the Lisp implementation on your machine. You can find this by running which sbcl or which ccl in the Terminal.
;;; -*- emacs-lisp -*-
(custom-set-variables
 '(show-paren-mode t)
 '(size-indication-mode t)
 '(tool-bar-mode nil)
 '(transient-mark-mode t)
 '(column-number-mode t)
 '(indent-tabs-mode nil)
 '(make-backup-files nil))

(set-face-foreground 'font-lock-string-face "navy")

(setq mouse-wheel-scroll-amount '(1 ((shift) .1)))
(setq mac-allow-anti-aliasing t)

;; Make sure gnuplot and dot are found. Add /usr/local/bin to the path
(setenv "LANG" "en_US.UTF-8")
(setenv "PATH" (concat (getenv "PATH") ":/usr/local/bin"))
(setq exec-path (append exec-path '("/usr/local/bin")))

;; path to slime (ADAPT <SLIME>)
(add-to-list 'load-path "<SLIME>")

(require 'slime)
(slime-setup '(slime-repl slime-autodoc slime-fancy-inspector))

;; path to lisp implementations (ADAPT <LISP>)
(setq inferior-lisp-program "<LISP>")

(command-execute 'slime)
  • Install Quicklisp by executing the following commands from your home directory:
wget http://beta.quicklisp.org/quicklisp.lisp

;; using ccl
ccl -n -l quicklisp.lisp -e '(quicklisp-quickstart:install)(ccl:quit)' -b

;; using sbcl
sbcl --no-sysinit --no-userinit --load quicklisp.lisp \
     --eval '(quicklisp-quickstart:install)' \
     --quit
  • [SBCL only] To ensure that Quicklisp and Babel are loaded whenever you start SBCL, you can create a file called .sbclrc in your home directory. Add the following to this file (filling in the correct path to your Babel folder):
;;; loading Babel
(load "/path/to/Babel/libraries/asdf")
(load "/path/to/Babel/init-babel")

;;; loading quicklisp
(load "~/quicklisp/setup.lisp")
  • [CCL only] To ensure that Quicklisp and Babel are loaded whenever you start CCL, you can create a file called .ccl-init.lisp in your home directory. Add the following to this file (filling in the correct path to your Babel folder):
;;; loading Quicklisp
#-quicklisp
(let ((quicklisp-init (merge-pathnames "quicklisp/setup.lisp" (user-homedir-pathname))))
  (when (probe-file quicklisp-init)
    (load quicklisp-init)))
;;; loading Babel
(load "/path/to/Babel/libraries/asdf")
(load "/path/to/Babel/init-babel")
  • Now, when you open Emacs, it should automatically start up a Lisp session, load Babel and print the following message:
* Initializing BABEL.
  The BABEL path is: /path/to/Babel
  • To test your Babel installation, run the following commands. The test consists in opening a PDF file with a diagram and displaying a window with a sinus function.
;;; for ccl
ccl -l /path/to/Babel/test-babel-installation.lisp -e '(ccl:quit)' -b

;;; for sbcl
sbcl --load "/path/to/Babel/test-babel-installation.lisp" --quit