Re: Package format/management ramblingss

[Alfred M. Szmidt]

   The problem is that programs determine the type of a file regarding
   its suffix.

Any sane program will not accept random input just because a file has
the correct suffix.  It should always check that it gets correct data;
and you cannot do this using a suffix.  Thus any program that doesn't
check its input data correctly and just assumes that it is correct
based on the file suffix is broken by design.

   >    Should we allow other packages to put files in /share/emacs?
   > 
   > No package will put files in /share/emacs, that directory is a
   > virtual one.  /share/emacs would be the union of
   > /packages/*/share/emacs.

   This means "yes"; any program can a have a share/emacs
   subdirectory.

No, it means "no".  A package will not put files in /share or anyother
diretory other then the package directory since /share and friends are
virtual.  That it can have a share/emacs subdirectory is another
thing, i.e. PACKAGE/share/emacs; this directory will be unioned into
/share/emacs by the package translator (not by the package it self).

Maybe we are just using different terminology and are misunderstanding
each other...

   Perhaps we should make every program always to expect the version
   number in the file (not directory) name.

Perhaps.  But many things are still left to be done before we can even
think about such things...