[AUCTeX-devel] Usage of install.el (was: Repository for RefTeX)

[Ralf Angeli]

* Stefan Monnier (2007-01-29) writes:

> One point of note: install.el is meant to be included in Emacs to help
> install external packages (it would then be supplemented with a package
> manager that could list the installed packages, select which ones to
> (de)activate, deinstall, etc..).  I.e. it's not meant to be specific to any
> particular package.  Which of course doesn't mean that one can't distribute
> a version of it along with RefTex.  Also the current install.el is just
> a very rough first step, more meant as a proof of concept.

As far as I can see the intent is to extract a tar ball at a target
location, e.g. site-lisp, and then compile everything in place.  My
thoughts about this are a bit ambiguous.  On the one hand this
enforces the notion of a package keeping everything in one place.
This way it will also be easier to update or remove a package.  On the
other hand this might leave some unwanted cruft in the target
location, e.g. distribution files like INSTALL or README.  (Of course,
those might not be necessary anymore once something like install.el is
established.)  And e.g. an info file might have to be copied to a
directory where the standalone info reader can find it nevertheless.

I like the idea of keeping everything in one place.  What I am
currently thinking about is if there should be a mechanism of
producing a clean package tar ball (which might also mean to change
the directory layout in order to be able to create a package suitable
for XEmacs) and if install.el should be able to be used during
development, i.e. for installing a package straight from the
development sources.  One could achieve this with a two-step approach
of creating a package and then installing it, of course.

-- 
Ralf