INSTALLING SLIME / SBCL ON GNU EMACS on WINDOWS

I wanted to share this in case any other newbies to Emacs/LISP are having similar problems. Hopefully someone finds it helpful. I tried installing SLIME on my system via MELPA using "M-x package-list-packages", scrolling down to SLIME and hitting install. When I did, it threw lots of compilation errors, deprecation errors regarding stuff in CL-LIB, etc. I tried to update some of the packages, but nothing worked. After a few hours of fiddling with it, I gave up and started looking for another way. In the end, I just decided to install it manually. Here are instructions. 1. Go to the SLIME repo on github and download SLIME. Just go [HERE](https://github.com/slime/slime), click the green "Code" button and download the zip file. 2. Unzip the SLIME folder into my favorite directory. 3. Download SBLC's Windows binary from [HERE](http://sbcl.org/platform-table.html). Just click the green cell that says "2.2.8 Newest" in the "Windows" row. 4. **SUPER IMPORTANT NOTE**: When you are running the installer, and it prompts you to approve the installation directory or choose your own, it is important NOT to choose a directory path that has any whitespace in it! This is a **16 YEAR OLD BUG** that may keep SLIME from initiating SBLC as a sub-process. I ran into this and it took me two hours of searching to figure out what was going on. After re-installing SBLC into a directory path with no whitespace, everything worked like a charm. You can read more about this idiotic bug [HERE](https://slime-devel.common-lisp.narkive.com/Wwcn0dh4/slime-doesn-t-handle-spaces-in-inferior-lisp-program). 5. Run the installer with #4 above in mind. 6. Add the following lines to your .emacs file: `(add-to-list 'load-path "<path to the directory you stored SLIME in>")` `(require 'slime-autoloads)` `(setq inferior-lisp-program "<directory to the path you installed to ... should end in sbcl.exe>")` `(require 'slime)` `(slime-setup)` 7. Restart emacs to reload your .emacs file. 8. Type "M-x slime" to start slime and sbcl. 9. Enjoy learning Common Lisp :)

I didn't know you could use emacs in windows. you should try linux:) you can do it on windows too for sure but since you like emacs you might like linux

I'm curious as to why you say that. linux is nothing like Emacs

emacs comes from the unix philosophy just as linux. emacs is a unix system

no, it's not, not in the least. GNU stands for GNU is not Unix for a reason. they couldn't be more for apart if they tried Emacs is a lisp machine for text. zero relation to Unix or the Unix philosophy

read this article by dr. might and read the section under [unix](https://matt.might.net/articles/what-cs-majors-should-know/) \-- it tells you that in practice the unix philosophy involves writing code without ides. as Richard Stallman says gnu+linux. this system is based on the unix operating system but its open source. im just never imagined people using windows used emacs

i don't need to read an article to know they are nothing alike. i have used both, and they are nothing alike at all

emacs is text editor and Linux is a os. im not saying emacs is an OS. emacs is unix/linux editor

Unix: “Do one thing and do it well” Emacs: “Hold my beer”

I was a tech support engineer for System76 for their first six years in business. I’ve forgotten more about the guts of linux than i care to admit. I may go back some day. But for now, I am a photographer, and Linux just isn’t there yet in that regard. PLEASE don’t recommend Gimp. :)

I actually recommend Gimp. And [RawTherapee](https://www.rawtherapee.com/).

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As a professional photographer who has used both of those, I can tell you that neither of them are suitable alternatives to professional-grade photo editing software. In fact, GIMP is very substandard. UPDATE: I've used GIMP recently -- I revisit it every year or so to see what's changed -- and it just isn't there. I realized I hadn't tried RAW Therapee in a couple years and just looked at their website. It looks like it might be ready for another try.