Common Lisp/External libraries

Common Lisp libraries exist for many purposes. Here we will showcase a small sampling of mature, useful, and free packages available, showing some of the functionality they provide.

System Utilities

1. ASDF — Another System Definition Facility
2. clbuild — A script to update/install the latest versions of all the most important Common Lisp packages

Language Extension

These libraries add new control structures to the Common Lisp language.

1. Iterate — Easy and extensible iteration
2. Extended Binding — Pattern matching, anaphoric control structures, and more
3. Cells — A constraint based programming paradigm that operates in a way similar to spread sheets
4. Screamer — Efficient, nondeterminism for Common Lisp
5. FSet — Functional programming in Common Lisp

Data Structures

1. CL-CONTAINERS — A library for abstracting data structures details
2. Funds — FUNctional Data Structures for Common Lisp

Parsing and Text processing

1. CL-PPCRE — regular expressions library
2. CXML — An XML parsing library
3. CL-HTML-Parse — Parsing HTML
4. CL-YACC — A parser generator
5. CL-Walker — A Common Lisp parser for Common Lisp

Serialization and Persistent data

1. Serialization — serialization of Common Lisp data (via cl-serialization and cl-store)
2. ELEPHANT — A persistent object system
3. CL-Perec — A persistent object system

GUI

1. Ltk — Common Lisp interface to Tk (portable GUI library)
2. McCLIM — A Common Lisp GUI builder

Graphics

1. Vecto — A library for drawing and rastering vector graphic images
2. CL-OpenGL — A set of GL, GLU, and GLUT bindings

Web and Network

1. Drakma — A full featured HTTP client
2. Portable Allegro Serve — A fairly light weight, multithreaded, HTTP server
3. Hunchentoot — A Web application server written in Common Lisp

Further reading

• http://cliki.net — The Common Lisp Wiki. Contains links to almost all existing free software Common Lisp libraries, and a few proprietary ones as well.
• http://www.cl-user.net — The Common Lisp Directory.
• http://common-lisp.net/ — Hosts a vast number of Common Lisp projects.