diff --git a/exscribe.asd b/exscribe.asd
index 00abd73b5f712fa6858010088eba99d8ac63fdda..a581f895b5957bd089cbb8f3538c4d075194c7d7 100644
--- a/exscribe.asd
+++ b/exscribe.asd
@@ -10,9 +10,7 @@
   :long-description "Exscribe helps you author documents and produce HTML output,
 using a high-level syntax (Scribble) completely integrated with the CL syntax.
 It notably features proper support for footnotes, table-of-contents, bibliography."
-  :depends-on (:cl-launch :xcvb-driver
-               :scribble :xcvb-utils :fare-quasiquote-optima :fare-memoization
-               :alexandria
+  :depends-on (:cl-launch :scribble :fare-utils :alexandria :fare-quasiquote-optima :fare-memoization
 	       #+exscribe-typeset :cl-typesetting)
   :components ((:file "packages")
 	       (:file "macros" :depends-on ("packages"))
diff --git a/exscribe.lisp b/exscribe.lisp
index 975e9dec58e51ebb89b88b522aa6b8bcbcc58fda..d687cab5134ef1ba690c82cf0fd37775ffc105e6 100644
--- a/exscribe.lisp
+++ b/exscribe.lisp
@@ -49,11 +49,6 @@
     ((or string pathname)
      (find-file-in-path f *exscribe-path* "scr" if-error))))
 
-(defun do-load (s &key &allow-other-keys)
-  (typecase s
-    (stream (cl-launch::load-stream s))
-    ((or string pathname) (load s))))
-
 (defun file-optimization ()
   (proclaim `(optimize (speed 1) (space 2)
               #-sbcl (debug 2)
@@ -71,11 +66,7 @@
 
 (defun exscribe-load-file (file)
   (file-optimization)
-  ;;(cl-launch:compile-and-load-file
-  (load
-   (find-exscribe-file file)
-   :print *exscribe-verbose*
-   :verbose *exscribe-verbose*))
+  (load* file :verbose *exscribe-verbose* :print *exscribe-verbose*))
 
 (defun exscribe-load-style (style)
   (unless (member style *loaded-styles*)
@@ -285,7 +276,6 @@ Options:
         (error "No output specified"))
       (process-file (car inputs) :into output))))
 
-#+cl-launch
 (defun main ()
   (add-exscribe-path *default-pathname-defaults*)
-  (process-command-line cl-launch:*arguments*))
+  (process-command-line *command-line-arguments*))
diff --git a/packages.lisp b/packages.lisp
index efcbc848816d3d3227eb1ca0eeea94f938145ab1..dce00d0d92aba35064aeea9d646bb458dd8d3960 100644
--- a/packages.lisp
+++ b/packages.lisp
@@ -2,9 +2,9 @@
 (module
  (:depends-on ("scribble/package")))
 
-(in-package :cl)
+(in-package :asdf/driver)
 
-(defpackage :scheme-makeup
+(define-package :scheme-makeup
   (:documentation "a poor emulation of Scheme in CL.
 Meant to leverage simple code with Scheme syntax,
 not to actually implement deep Scheme semantics.")
@@ -29,18 +29,19 @@ not to actually implement deep Scheme semantics.")
    #:*scribe-background* #:*scribe-foreground* #:*scribe-tbackground*
    #:*scribe-format* #:*scribe-header* #:*scribe-footer*))
 
-(defpackage :scheme-compat
+(define-package :scheme-compat
   (:documentation "innards of the Scheme in CL emulation")
-  (:use :scheme-makeup
-        :xcvb-utils :fare-quasiquote :optima :common-lisp)
+  (:mix :asdf/driver :fare-utils :alexandria)
+  (:use :scheme-makeup :fare-quasiquote :optima :common-lisp)
   ;;(:shadowing-import-from :scheme-makeup :map)
   (:export
    #:set-scheme-macro-characters))
 
-(defpackage :exscribe
+(define-package :exscribe
   (:documentation "core infrastructure for exscribe")
-  (:use :scribble
-        :xcvb-utils :fare-quasiquote :optima :common-lisp)
+  (:mix :asdf/driver :fare-utils :alexandria)
+  (:reexport :asdf/driver :fare-utils :alexandria)
+  (:use :scribble :fare-quasiquote :optima :common-lisp :cl-launch)
   #+exscribe-typeset
   (:import-from :typeset
    #:*paper-size* #:*page-margins* #:*twosided* #:*toc-depth*
@@ -83,10 +84,9 @@ not to actually implement deep Scheme semantics.")
    #:html #:pdf #:txt #:info
    #:document #:style))
 
-(defpackage :exscribe-data
+(define-package :exscribe-data
   (:documentation "internal data representation for exscribe")
-  (:use :exscribe
-        :xcvb-utils :fare-quasiquote :optima :common-lisp)
+  (:use :exscribe :fare-quasiquote :optima :common-lisp)
   (:export
    #:tag-attr #:tag #:xtag #:otag #:ctag
    #:make-xml-tag #:make-open-tag #:make-close-tag
@@ -109,7 +109,7 @@ not to actually implement deep Scheme semantics.")
    #:brlist #:br* #:spacedlist #:spaced*
    #:walking-document #:walk #:recurse))
 
-(defpackage :html-dumper
+(define-package :html-dumper
   (:documentation "HTML dumping functions")
   (:use :common-lisp)
   (:export
@@ -117,28 +117,26 @@ not to actually implement deep Scheme semantics.")
    #:html-string #:html-escape-stream
    #:html-tag-attr #:html-close-tag))
 
-(defpackage :exscribe-html
+(define-package :exscribe-html
   (:documentation "HTML backend for exscribe")
   (:shadowing-import-from :exscribe-data #:html)
   (:use :exscribe-data :exscribe :html-dumper
-        :xcvb-utils :fare-quasiquote :optima :common-lisp))
+        :fare-quasiquote :optima :common-lisp))
 
-(defpackage :exscribe-txt
+(define-package :exscribe-txt
   (:documentation "Text backend for exscribe")
-  (:use :exscribe-data :exscribe
-        :xcvb-utils :fare-quasiquote :optima :common-lisp)
+  (:use :exscribe-data :exscribe :fare-quasiquote :optima :common-lisp)
   (:export #:extract-text #:normalize-text))
 
 #+exscribe-typeset
-(defpackage :exscribe-typeset
+(define-package :exscribe-typeset
   (:documentation "CL-Typesetting backend for exscribe")
   (:shadowing-import-from :exscribe-data #:image #:hrule #:table)
-  (:use :exscribe-data :exscribe :typeset
-        :xcvb-utils :fare-quasiquote :optima :common-lisp)
+  (:use :exscribe-data :exscribe :typeset :fare-quasiquote :optima :common-lisp)
   (:export))
 
-(defpackage :exscribe-user
+(define-package :exscribe-user
   ;(:shadowing-import-from :scheme-makeup :map)
   (:use :exscribe-html :exscribe-data :exscribe :scheme-makeup
-        :xcvb-utils :fare-quasiquote :optima :common-lisp)
+        :fare-quasiquote :optima :common-lisp)
   (:export))