Can’t figure out how to run Kenzo

[guillaumebrunerie]

I’m trying to run Kenzo but it doesn’t seem to work. This is probably an issue with me rather than with Kenzo, as I don’t know much about Lisp (in particular how packages/systems/modules work) but I would welcome any help.

I have installed SBCL (locally, as I do not have admin rights), cloned the Kenzo repository, and simlinked Kenzo to ~/.local/share/common-lisp/source/Kenzo.
Now, from the command line I run sbcl, then in the prompt (require :asdf) and then (require :kenzo). The first time it did a lot of things, and now it only returns
("abbreviations" "macros" "various" "classes" "combinations" "chain-complexes" "chcm-elementary-op" "effective-homology" "homology-groups" "searching-homology" ...)
I guess that’s ok, and that it has been loaded.

But now how do I use it?
I tried running the first line of 00_Overview.ipynb in the sbcl prompt, namely (def m23 (moore 2 3)), but it fails with the following error:

* (def m23 (moore 2 3))
; in: DEF M23
;     (DEF M23 (MOORE 2 3))
; 
; caught STYLE-WARNING:
;   undefined function: DEF
; 
; caught WARNING:
;   undefined variable: M23

;     (MOORE 2 3)
; 
; caught STYLE-WARNING:
;   undefined function: MOORE
; 
; compilation unit finished
;   Undefined functions:
;     DEF MOORE
;   Undefined variable:
;     M23
;   caught 1 WARNING condition
;   caught 2 STYLE-WARNING conditions

debugger invoked on a UNBOUND-VARIABLE in thread #<THREAD "main thread" RUNNING {10028DE963}>: The variable M23 is unbound.

If I try (moore 2 3), I get
debugger invoked on a UNDEFINED-FUNCTION in thread #<THREAD "main thread" RUNNING {10028DE963}>: The function COMMON-LISP-USER::MOORE is undefined.

I also tried things like (kenzo:moore 2 3) but then I get
debugger invoked on a SB-INT:SIMPLE-READER-PACKAGE-ERROR in thread #<THREAD "main thread" RUNNING {10028DE963}>: Package KENZO does not exist.Stream: #<SYNONYM-STREAM :SYMBOL SB-SYS:*STDIN* {1000189D43}>

What am I missing?
Thanks!

[gheber]

Kenzo defines a package called "CAT". You should call cat-init before doing anything else. For example,

C:\Users\gheber>sbcl --eval "(ql:quickload :kenzo)"
This is SBCL 1.3.10, an implementation of ANSI Common Lisp.
More information about SBCL is available at <http://www.sbcl.org/>.

SBCL is free software, provided as is, with absolutely no warranty.
It is mostly in the public domain; some portions are provided under
BSD-style licenses.  See the CREDITS and COPYING files in the
distribution for more information.

WARNING: the Windows port is fragile, particularly for multithreaded
code.  Unfortunately, the development team currently lacks the time
and resources this platform demands.
To load "kenzo":
  Load 1 ASDF system:
    kenzo
; Loading "kenzo"

* (in-package "CAT")

#<PACKAGE "CAT">
* (cat-init)

---done---
* (def m23 (moore 2 3))

[K1 Simplicial-Set]
*

Does that work for you?

The Jupyter notebook hides some of the initialization work.

[guillaumebrunerie]

It works, thanks!
Maybe that should be added to the README file?

[gheber]

Will do.

[jcguu95]

The function cat-init is not necessary to start playing with Kenzo. What @guillaumebrunerie missed was to jump into the package with (in-package :cat), which was included in the readme already.

I suggest closing this issue.

[adlai]

suggest closing this issue

reasonable only after documenting the correct initial steps; closing the Issue will hide it from the default views on the web interface, and make using the program for the first time equally frustrating for the next person unfamiliar with its quirks.

I believe the "best practice" is to provide a package named something like KENZO-USER, similarly to CL-USER, and then note that any symbol not imported into that package should be considered subject to change in future releases.