Re: Improving browsing and discoverability in the Packages Menu

[Eric Abrahamsen]

Tassilo Horn <address@hidden> writes:

> Drew Adams <address@hidden> writes:
>
>>> If it were intended by the package author, where is the problem of
>>> adding
>>>   ;; byte-compile-warnings: (not unknown-keyword)
>>> to the package's local variables section?
>>
>> So to some file written by someone somewhere somewhen, perhaps quite
>> some time ago, you say: "All ya gotta do is jump through this leetle
>> hoop here."
>
> Yes, exactly.  Because if it is available via ELPA, MELPA, or some other
> package archive, then it seems to be actively maintained.  And in the
> very unlikely case that the author/maintainer insists on "modeline"
> instead of "mode-line", she can jump through the little hoop.
>
> BTW, an `unknown-keyword' warning was not really what I meant in my
> previous reply.  Of course, package.el cannot know all sensible
> keywords, so it should work with any keyword.  But in the case of
> keywords that are likely just synonyms or typos of some commonly used
> keyword (modeline vs. mode-line), it could suggest the commonly used one
> for achieving a bit standardization.
>
>>> And I'm pretty sure you won't see any occurrence of
>>>   ;; Keywords: modeline, electronic mail
>>>   ;; Package Keywords: mode-line, email
>>> even if there was a new field.
>>
>> Sorry, I didn't catch your last point.  Perhaps you mean to say that
>> `Keywords' will disappear?  All the kids will run to play in the new
>> sandbox?
>
> No, what I've meant to say is that when a maintainer adds the new
> `Package Keywords' header duplicating the existing `Keywords' header and
> then sees that byte-compilation suggests to use the more commonly used
> "mode-line" and "email" instead of "modeline" and "electronic mail", why
> should she change only `Package Keywords` accordingly and not
> `Keywords', too?  (Assuming that she agrees that "mode-line" and "email"
> express what she intended to express, too.)

If we go this route I humbly suggest Package Category (or just Category)
as an alternative. It's not as immediately confusable with "keyword",
and I think semantically speaking pairs with it quite nicely.