ql:quickload

(ql:quickload name-or-names)

Downloads a system (and its dependencies) from the real Quicklisp distribution into a local cache, then loads it exactly like asdf:load-system. The argument is a single system-name designator (string, keyword or symbol) or a list of them; the return value is the list of loaded system names as symbols. quicklisp is a nickname for the ql package.

The download uses the Quicklisp dist metadata: quicklisp.txt (the distinfo) points at systems.txt (dependency resolution) and releases.txt (the tarball URL per project). Each release tarball is fetched, extracted and cached under ~/.rontolisp/quicklisp/ (override the location with the RONTOLISP_QUICKLISP_HOME environment variable), so a second quickload of the same system does no network I/O. After the sources are present, the extracted .asd directories are added to the system search path and loading proceeds through the asdf subset — so ql:quickload is asdf:load-system with an auto-download step in front of it. It is subject to the same limitations: many libraries use Common Lisp features rontolisp does not implement (the full CLOS protocol, the condition system) and will not load even once downloaded.

The download happens at interpret time or compile time (on the Java side, not inside the compiled program). On the interpreter, quickload is an ordinary runtime function, so a computed name works. On the compile path (JVM/WASM), a literal, top-level (ql:quickload NAME) is downloaded and its component files are spliced into the program at compile time — so the compiled program has the sources baked in and never fetches at runtime (the WASM fetch limitation does not apply). A quickload nested inside another form or with a computed argument is a compile error.

$ rontolisp
> (ql:quickload "split-sequence")
(split-sequence)
> (split-sequence:split-sequence #\, "a,b,c")
("a" "b" "c")

The first call downloads and caches split-sequence; the second call into the loaded system runs it. See the Systems guide for the cache layout and the list of libraries that actually load.