Getting SBCL to work: possible to volunteer?

[Keith Irwin]

Folks--

SBCL (steel bank common lisp) exists in the universe pool but is not
packaged.  I assume that it didn't get built for some reason or another,
most likely a problem with the environment in which packages get built,
my guess being that SBCL might need itself in order to build.

Common Lisp, alas, isn't that popular, so I'd never assume that getting
it working is a high priority for any of you.  Many packages exist in
universe which depend on either SBCL or CMUCL, neither of which is, at
present, apt-gettable.

SO, what I'd like to do is figure out what the problem is so that you
all don't have to, and then do the right things, or write up the right
suggestions, or whatever it is so that those of us weirdos who love lisp
can just:

	apt-get install sbcl cl-*

and go to town.

The thing is, I have no idea how to go about doing this.  I've been
looking at the WIKI trying to see how I can help, what the proper
channels are, etc, etc, but no luck so far.  I know nothing of how
distributions (debian based or not) are put together, how packages are
contributed, if there is a "janitorial" service, etc, etc.  Now that I
think about it, I'll go read the debian pages to see if there are any
hints.

Also, I'm not the maintainer of sbcl.  I can compile it and track down
problems when it doesn't compile and talk to the actual developers, but
that's about it.

How can I help?

What I know is this:

 * SBCL requires a lisp in order to compile.

 * The universe version is based on 0.8.12, which can't be compiled by
   sbcl 0.8.15 due to a new feature which allows the locking of module
   internals.

 * SBCL can be compiled by other lisps, such as CLISP, and CMUCL.

That's about all I know. ;)

Keith