Re: use-package.el -> Emacs core

[John Wiegley]

>>>>> Kaushal Modi <address@hidden> writes:

> My biggest concern is the duplication and confusion for end-user code.
> define-key vs bind-key. As João mentioned in a different context, I feel
> this kind of syntactic sugar is probably not OK for end-user code; providing
> many options increases the complexity when debugging code for the user and
> the maintainer.

`define-key' is not really an end-user function, as I've met countless people
who have never even heard of it. `global-set-key' is much more user-facing,
and I could see merging `bind-key' into `global-set-key'.

> My suggestion would be to first merge bind-key into define-key and sister
> defuns/macros. If that is feasible, then we can think if use-package can be
> merged.

I don't see a need for that much caution. The two can proceed in parallel.
use-package.el should go into the ELPA-subset-that-comes-with-Emacs today, and
then receive official blessing and documentation as an announced feature in
25.2.

> About use-package: I also have a opinion that the user will understand less
> of how requires, autoloads, eval-after-loads and idle timers work if they
> start using use-package as the first thing.

Yes! That is the *point*. Emacs is not just for Lisp programmers.

> With that said, would adding bind-key and use-package to GNU Elpa be a
> better option?

Certainly a good starting place, as long as it's available in the tarball so
that it's immediately available, and users don't have to go through some other
configuration work to start using it.

John