package.el (was: Re: CVS is the `released version')

[David Reitter]

Hi Tom,

I just had a look at package.el. A few comments:

The install instructions say:

> If you don't know what "eval" means, it means that you should copy  
> this into your *scratch* buffer, move your cursor just after the  
> final closing paren, and type C-j.

*scratch* is not guaranteed to be in emacs-lisp-mode. So C-j might  
not work. M-x eval-region would!

From your installer file:

> (expand-file-name "~/.emacs.d/elpa")

please don't assume that this directory is something where you can  
(or the user wants to) install things. There should be a  
customization variable for this. This applies to package.el itself as  
well, where you have a defvar, not a defcustom, for package-user-dir.

In package.el, I'm not sure what's going on with `package-activated- 
list', but you seem to make assumptions about which packages are  
installed by default. Does your code also check for actually  
installed files? Emacs distributions may come with other things like  
AUCTeX, JDEE, and many other packages already installed (and this may  
or may not have been done in a way compatible with package.el).

I hope that helps, and keep working on this - I think it's a good idea.