Re: BBDB v3 approaching release

[Jambunathan K]

> Can the ELPA format handle such files, too?  How?

ELPA is just a tar bundle.  You can include whatever you want as part of
the bundle. 




> In a way, I am surprised that I do not know about other elisp
> packages having similar needs. Whenever you want to print something
> with (La)TeX, you normally need some kind of style file that (La)TeX
> needs to find.

Org's ODT exporter depends on XML style files for it's export.  The
style files are included right within the tar ball as part of ./etc/
directory.

        See http://elpa.gnu.org/packages/org.html.

(I think using "./etc" for bundling "data files" is a good precedent.)

`load-file-name' is your friend.

    (defconst org-odt-lib-dir
      (file-name-directory load-file-name)
      "Location of ODT exporter.
    Use this to infer values of `org-odt-styles-dir' and
    `org-odt-schema-dir'.")

    (defvar org-odt-data-dir
      (expand-file-name "./etc/" org-odt-lib-dir)
      "Data directory for ODT exporter.
    Use this to infer values of `org-odt-styles-dir' and
    `org-odt-schema-dir'.")

> Of course, one work around would be that emacs includes the style
> file into the TeX files it generates. One advantage of such an
> approach would be that the resulting TeX files become self-contained
> for any "standard" TeX installation so that one can forward the TeX
> files to someone who does not have the BBDB tex files installed.
> But I consider the forwarding of such files a more rare scenario.

Bundle things in a way that minimizes headaches for you and others.

In the long run, you can do away with BDBD specific style files and use
some packages that (already) come with Tex.  Or move the BDBB style
files to Tex distribution.

2 cents.

> Roland