On Thu, 21 May 2020 at 13:42, Richard Stallman <
address@hidden> wrote:
[[[ To any NSA and FBI agents reading my email: please consider ]]]
[[[ whether defending the US Constitution against all enemies, ]]]
[[[ foreign or domestic, requires you to follow Snowden's example. ]]]
> Is there actually a discoverability problem for GNU ELPA packages? After
> over 25 years of Emacs use, I think discovering and trying out new packages
> and features has never been easier. I really don't miss the old days of
> hunting around various ftp servers trying to find the latest and current
> version of some library or package.
It sounds like you are especially savvy about searching for packages.
Most users are not so knowledgeable; improving discoverability
wouldbe intended for their sake.
But that is my point. With the introduction of package.el and ELPA (as well as other 3rd party archives), you don't need to be savvy about searching for packages. In the old days, yes, this was a constant problem and time consuming. Now, all you need to do is run M-x list-packages. Each package is listed with a brief description and if you click on (or hit enter on) a package, a new window pups up with additional details (longer description, link to homepage and/or source repository etc). Emacs lisp packages are more discoverable now than they have ever been. Furthermore, if I understand correctly, core libs/packages in Emacs can be 'flagged' as 'built-in' which makes them discoverable via M-x list-packages as well.
This is why I think just clarifying the rationale, goals and maintenance structure for ELPA, developing guidelines for when packages should be in ELPA and when should not would go a long way to improving the situation.
As this has not been done, people are confused. Developers will turn to MELPA instead of ELPA simply because the process is clear, fast and relatively easy. Users will use MELPA because that is what the user community knows as the 'main' Emacs package archive - it is where they can find most of the things they need.
Clarify what ELPA is for, how it is managed and what the process is to get a package into ELPA, then streamline this process and provide an efficient workflow for package maintenance and many may begin to use ELPA more and rely on MELPA less. Even more importantly, ELPA might become the definitive archive for good quality, stable and GPL compliant Emacs packages.
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