Re: CVS is the `released version'

[Mike Mattie]

On Mon, 14 May 2007 04:09:00 -0400
Richard Stallman <address@hidden> wrote:

>        I don't see how any code installed in Emacs could save you the
> need for that.
> 

I have looked often for an "official" repository, simply because I do not want 
to
install a third party component that may be unavailable later if the code/author
disappears.

There is alot of emacs code that isn't distributed AFAIK with emacs with
significant user bases. SLIME , CEDET, EDB, JDEE. SLIME in particular is
an amazing piece of software.

Along with the extremely high quality packages , a repository with a lower
bar than emacs cvs would encourage people to take the plunge into publishing
their elisp hacks to the world. A softer soil for new code/developers.

I don't think it takes elisp code to manage an archive of that sort. Existing
package managers such as paludis could be used to manage a elisp tree, and
a simple modification to the .emacs file could recursively traverse and load
the top-level .elc? files it finds. Then you have a repository loader instead
of a complete repository system which is a enormous re-invention of the wheel.

paludis supports multiple repositories, periodic syncs for versioned repos,
and a host of other features. There are several package managers out there
with fairly light setup.

Even if a package repository is not created I think a search engine for elisp
code would be nice. It could even be a simple google-shortcut from the emacs 
page.
It would serve to link together the current emacs universe which is scattered
to the winds outside of emacs cvs. (Usually some university student's home-page
or some such thing)

Anyways most linux users at least are served by a distribution which has all
the functionality that has been discussed above. It's where I get my emacs-cvs,
foo-cvs, foo-wherever with full dependency information.

If this sort of infrastructure is set-up by emacs it's to bring the now ancient
revolution of the package manager to windows IMHO (where emacs works well but
feels stripped without hours of tracking down the far-flung components needed
to get the functionality of a linux distro installed emacs).

> 
> That is something that could be done by a function to install certain
> Lisp code, which does not need that Lisp code to be a "package".
> 
> 
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