Thanks for the clarification and highlighting my point with the comment about rbenv. I think I found the source of my confusion which is (http://www.joshstaiger.org/archives/2005/07/bash_profile_vs....) "An exception to the terminal window guidelines is Mac OS X’s Terminal.app, which runs a login shell by default for each new terminal window, calling .bash_profile instead of .bashrc. Other GUI terminal emulators may do the same, but most tend not to.".
That may explain why so many github projects recommend adding PATH and other env variables to .bash_profile.
Can we also address .bash_rc, .bash_profile, .profile, /etc/bash.bashrc, disambiguation. I get tired of instructions advising me to put PATH and other modifiers in .bash_profile when that only works for a login shell. Doesn't work, as needed, if you are actually using Linux as your desktop system.
If you want something done then you need to start on it yourself. Disregarding what QuickLisp has accomplished because you have to deal with more than one package management system is trollish. You'll probably want to start by designing a plugin framework that can support multiple versions of any given language. Also need to be able to bundle dependencies per application, on any operating system, so that you don't pollute the global package space for any one given application under developement. kthx
That may explain why so many github projects recommend adding PATH and other env variables to .bash_profile.