Re: elpa.gnu.org repository sync with Emacs

[Jambunathan K <kjambunathan@gmail.com>]

Ted Zlatanov <tzz@lifelogs.com> writes:

> On Wed, 17 Nov 2010 11:45:42 -0800 "Drew Adams" <drew.adams@oracle.com> wrote: 
>
>>> It's *not* ELPA, it's elpa.gnu.org.  Tom Tromey runs 
>>> ELPA.  I make the distinction again because it matters:
>>> 
>>> To avoid this confusion, how about renaming the server?
>>> We could call it emacs-pkg.gnu.org.
>
> DA> 1+
>
> DA> And in discussions (e.g. here) call it something other than ELPA.
>
> epkg is already used.  emacs-pkg is long and hard to type.
>

From a user-perspective the length of the string shouldn't matter. Emacs
will ship with the default archives (whatever it is called) and for
existing installations it is one time re-configuration of
`package-archives'. May be for maintainers the story is different ...

> How about ENE (ENE is Not ELPA)?

ELPA seems like a generic term to me. It is an archive that stores emacs
lisp packages. There could be multiple instantiantions of the archive
(let's call them repositories) and GNU archives is one of it. Needless
to say, each repo can enforce different gating policies or cater to a
niche audience say like windows users.

I think the term ELPA has become 'popular' only in recent years and it
has not been around for so long that it is etched in people's
memory. Furthermore there are other implementations that users use (like
el-get) which more or less provides same functionality as the current
package manager at their core.

I would hesistate to call anything 'not something' unless 'something'
happens to 'a very big thing' or 'a long standing thing' that it gets in
the way of people thinking about it.

Whatever be the name that is adopted, it should capture the 'uniqueness'
of the underlying repo. ie., the name has to speak for itself or it
could be something that is neutral (think 'savannah' for example). 

Just thinking as I type, something 'rooted' in savannah.gnu.org would
create the right association. Or one could get play with names and end
with one of of veldt, puszta, pampas, steppe, prairie ...

Jambunathan K.

>
> Ted