Re: Integrating package.el

[Stephen J. Turnbull]

Chong Yidong writes:

 > > This is a problem as opposed to increasing numbers of packages that
 > > are available only to their authors and you can't put into Emacs?  At
 > > least this way you'll have a contact address for authors.
 > 
 > No, it's a valid concern.  It's hard work hunting down papers and
 > integrating packages.

Nobody said otherwise.  I am painfully aware of the costs of both.

 > We must make sure a package system does not tempt us to just "dump
 > and forget".

Too late.  By refusing to handle registration of 3rd-party packages
itself, Emacs has been "dumping and forgetting" for decades.  That
hasn't hindered growth of repositories of unassigned code in
any way, it has just created a class system and contributed to
integration problems for maintainers of packages like AUCTeX who do
exercise due diligence ... but they arrived on the scene too late.

The temptation is a *human* problem, not the system's, and refusing to
list unassigned packages is just as much succumbing to the temptation
as "forgetting" to chase papers for listed packages.  At least if you
list the packages, you have the goad of shame to go chasing the papers.