Re: Forcing reinstall in package.el

[Tom Tromey]

Tom> I forgot to mention -- installing older versions can break dependencies.
Tom> The package activation code will handle this ok (it will not activate
Tom> such packages), but it will probably come as a surprise to the user when
Tom> some other package stops working.

Ted> Does this mean you're OK with the prompts otherwise?

Sure.

Ted> I think if the user asks to install an older version and forces
Ted> package.el to do it, they should be responsible for any breakage.

I just think it is friendlier to do the right thing instead of breaking
obscurely, and to make experts take an extra step instead of offering
non-expert users a choice that they are often ill-advised to take.

Ted> The prompt is too long already so I don't want to extend it with "...and
Ted> this will break installed packages if they depend on the newer
Ted> version."  But maybe package.el could show "broken" packages that can't
Ted> be activated because of the version mismatch?  Or is that already covered?

It doesn't show them specially right now, but I think it could.

Tom