Re: CVS is the `released version'

[David Kastrup]

Tom Tromey <address@hidden> writes:

> package.el is attached to a web site, ELPA, where package updates
> are uploaded.  The idea here is twofold.

The central repository (and the necessary policies for maintaining it,
and the requirement to find intermediaries) is what I find works
absolutely worst with the XEmacs package system.  It is the main
culprit for XEmacs distributing outdated packages.

Once one has a central repository, there is no significant advantage
over not having packages but instead putting everything inside of
Emacs.

> First, many packages are released between Emacs releases; package.el
> makes it simple to update to these releases and use them.  Second,
> not every useful Emacs Lisp package out there is going to be
> included in Emacs.  We've seen over the years that having a separate
> repository is in fact very useful to Emacs users.

Who saw that?

> Another thing package.el provides is simple installation.  Packages
> are downloaded (including their dependencies, if any) and installed
> for you, autoloads are extracted, the package is byte-compiled, and
> when Emacs starts up,the packages are "activated" (meaning the
> autoloads are evalled).  Users don't have to modify their .emacs for
> updates to load-path, the Info path, or a list of autoloads.

They don't have for packages that are included in Emacs, anyway.

-- 
David Kastrup