Can't set up qtools in common-lisp SBCL - lisp

Question

I'm a beginner in lisp and I'm unable to find out how to correctly use defpackage to load qtools (on arch linux).
For simplicity if I run this example project in sbcl with loaded quicklisp
https://github.com/Shinmera/qtools/tree/master/examples/helloworld
this error appears
While evaluating the form starting at line 8, column 0
of #P"/home/william/code/upol/lisp/helloworld/helloworld.lisp":
debugger invoked on a PACKAGE-DOES-NOT-EXIST in thread
#<THREAD "main thread" RUNNING {1000508083}>:
The name "CL+QT" does not designate any package.
Why "cl+qt" is not provided by any of installed packages with quickload?
Here is a list of installed packages
$ ls ~/.quicklisp/dists/quicklisp/software
Thanks for help
My resources:
https://github.com/Shinmera/qtools
https://lispcookbook.github.io/cl-cookbook/getting-started.html

Answer 1

Let's look at the example. The order of actions is:
compile the .asd file (for example, with C-c C-k). This creates the qtools-helloworld system.
load "qtools-helloworld" and its dependencies with Quicklisp: (ql:quickload :qtools-helloworld).
compile helloworld.lisp (again, with C-c C-k), and call its functions.
Also, look at Qtools readme: https://github.com/Shinmera/qtools#qtools-1 It says to install these 3 libraries:
(ql:quickload '(qtools qtcore qtgui))
The cl+qt package is provided by one of these systems.
update: the steps required to run the helloworld from the command line are:
load the asd definition: rlwrap sbcl --load qtools-helloworld.asd. (rlwrap is just a readline utility)
you are dropped into the Lisp REPL. Now we install the dependencies with Quicklisp, that you must have installed first. You type this into the Lisp REPL: (ql:quickload :qtools-helloworld). That is the name defined in the asd.
now you can compile the .lisp file: (load "helloworld.lisp):
* (ql:quickload :qtools-helloworld)
To load "qtools-helloworld":
Load 1 ASDF system:
qtools-helloworld
; Loading "qtools-helloworld"
[package qtools-helloworld]....
(:QTOOLS-HELLOWORLD)
it didn't show a GUI. We'll call the main function:
(qtools-helloworld::main)
and you should see the example. If you make changes to the lisp file you can load it again. This use of the REPL in the terminal works but is not as interactive as Lisp can be (far from it). You want your editor to be connected to the REPL and send changes automatically, with a keystroke.
Check out the Cookbook, editors section, Atom support is very good with SLIMA.
ps: I find Qtools a little bit difficult, passed running the provided examples. It is not as easily discoverable as other GUIs (like Ltk or IUP). Hope you'll prove me wrong though.
pps: also https://lispcookbook.github.io/cl-cookbook/gui.html#qt4

Answer 2

You need to install the qtools system.
A system is a way to organize software libraries
A package is a namespace
The two are theoretically unrelated. But often, when you load a system X, it defines a package named X.
In some cases (like qtools) there are many packages for one system, for example because the system wants to define different levels of API.
Another way to define multiple packages when loading one system comes from the fact that ASDF version 3.1 supports an extension copied from other build systems named package-inferred-systems, where each source file is implicitly mapped to one system and one package.
Here is a snippet of what Quicklisp shows when installing qtools:
* (ql:quickload :qtools)
To load "qtools":
Load 14 ASDF systems:
array-utils asdf bordeaux-threads cffi cl-ppcre
closer-mop dissect documentation-utils form-fiddle
named-readtables qt+libs trivial-features
trivial-garbage trivial-indent
... ... ...
To load "qtools":
Load 1 ASDF system:
qtools
; Loading "qtools"
[package uiop/package]............................
..................................................
[package cffi-sys]................................
[package cffi]....................................
..................................................
[package cffi-features]...........................
[package qt-libs].................................
[package qt]......................................
..................................................
[package deploy]..................................
[package dissect].................................
[package simple-tasks]............................
[package trivial-main-thread].....................
[package qtools]..................................
[package cl+qt]...................................
.............................
(:QTOOLS)
Quicklisp is able to intercept and print new packages when they are defined. Here above we can see that there are multiple packages defined while loading quicklisp, either (1) packages defined by the dependencies of qtools, or (2) packages defined by qtools itself. Here both qtools and cl+qt are packages defined by the qtools system.
Packages are not declared in systems, so you need to rely on documentation to know what packages a system defines.