Why I can't install quicklisp? ("Package QUICKLISP-QUICKSTART does not exist")

I've installed Emacs and SBCL, and I've already set up the environment variables. I've also downloaded quicklisp, but I can't get it to work (I'm using Windows 8).

I load it:

c:\home>sbcl ~~load quicklisp.lisp

And then, after I type:

* (quicklisp-quickstart:install)

I get the following obscure error:

debugger invoked on a SB-INT:SIMPLE-READER-PACKAGE-ERROR in thread
#<THREAD "main thread" RUNNING {240866C1}>:
  Package QUICKLISP-QUICKSTART does not exist.

    Stream: #<SYNONYM-STREAM :SYMBOL SB-SYS:*STDIN* {22402A19}>

Type HELP for debugger help, or (SB-EXT:EXIT) to exit from SBCL.

restarts (invokable by number or by possibly-abbreviated name):
  0: [ABORT] Exit debugger, returning to top level.

I've googled this "Quickstart does not exist" error, but there's nothing. I'm a Python programmer and I'm really wanting to learn Lisp, and this error is just way too cryptic for me to deal with at the very beginning.

Solution

Your loading command,

sbcl ~~load quicklisp.lisp

should be

sbcl --load quicklisp.lisp

Hyphens, not tildes. (This isn't just SBCL, mind you; it's the convention for just about all UNIX style command line arguments.)

This doesn't cause any kind of error because, as Xach pointed out in the comments, SBCL passes arguments it doesn't understand to the program as part of sb-ext:*posix-argv*.