Re: Bundling GNU ELPA packages

[Stefan Monnier]

> I do.  Depending on the exact timing of the change I may have more or
> less time to spend on this topic, though.

Any time now would be good.

> Here's one issue that I've not seen discussed bradly so far: currently
> builtin packages aren't packages at all and are indeed available
> site-wide for this particular Emacs version.  ELPA packages on the other
> hand are a per-user thing only.  With ELPA packages bundled into Emacs,
> I suggest that there should be a possibility for site-wide configuration
> of which packages are available and enabled in the same way that
> site-lisp currently works for non-packaged libraries.

While there is no UI for it, package.el can definitely handle
site-wide packages: just add the corresponding directory to
package-directory-list.  And /usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp/elpa is
included in there by default.

I'm not sure exactly what kind of "configuration of which packages are
available" you're thinking of, but I don't plan to provide a way to
"disable" bundled packages, just like we currently don't offer a way to
disable the things "activated" in lisp/loaddefs.el.

Elsewhere some other people talked about:
> > CEDET also comes to mind as a great candidate, although it might be
> > harder to move.
> I think the Big Three are good candidates: Org, Gnus, and CEDET.

Once the infrastructure is in place, we will have the opportunity to
look at those things.  Note that Gnus is probably not an easy option
since several parts of it are also used by non-Gnus code
(e.g. message.el for bug reports).


        Stefan