What's Elpa? (I.e. what did you decide the name refers to?)

What's Elpa? (I.e. what did you decide the name refers to?)

[Kelly Dean]

In general usage, it now seems to mean a particular repository (the one at elpa.gnu.org), with others being Melpa and Marmalade. Unless this is another case of my limited reading comprehension abilities.

In package.el, an elpa is a repository in general (not a particular one). E.g. metadata for all repositories (not just from elpa.gnu.org) goes into the elpa/archives directory, and the docstrings and comments in package.el use the name in the general sense.

It's much easier to substitute a few words in a source code file than to change people's habits, so despite the name apparently being general originally, maybe it would be clearer to pick a new name to use in package.el (and for general usage) for the general sense, and let ‟Elpa” mean the repository at elpa.gnu.org.

Or insist that people say ‟GNU elpa” for that one? Then there's ‟Melpa elpa” and ‟Marmalade elpa”. Cumbersome.

This isn't something that would normally matter, but it can cause misunderstanding when people say things like ‟a package in elpa”.

Re: What's Elpa? (I.e. what did you decide the name refers to?)

[Filipp Gunbin]

On 08/01/2015 06:27 +0000, Kelly Dean wrote:

> In general usage, it now seems to mean a particular repository (the
> one at elpa.gnu.org), with others being Melpa and Marmalade. Unless
> this is another case of my limited reading comprehension abilities.

What general usage do you mean?

> It's much easier to substitute a few words in a source code file than
> to change people's habits, so despite the name apparently being
> general originally, maybe it would be clearer to pick a new name to
> use in package.el (and for general usage) for the general sense, and
> let ‟Elpa” mean the repository at elpa.gnu.org.
>
> Or insist that people say ‟GNU elpa” for that one? Then there's ‟Melpa
> elpa” and ‟Marmalade elpa”. Cumbersome.

http://elpa.gnu.org/packages/ - it's GNU ELPA there.

Why can't "Melpa" be just a shortcut for "Melpa elpa?"

Filipp

Re: What's Elpa? (I.e. what did you decide the name refers to?)

[Phillip Lord]

Filipp Gunbin <fgunbin@fastmail.fm> writes:

> On 08/01/2015 06:27 +0000, Kelly Dean wrote:
>
>> In general usage, it now seems to mean a particular repository (the
>> one at elpa.gnu.org), with others being Melpa and Marmalade. Unless
>> this is another case of my limited reading comprehension abilities.
>
> What general usage do you mean?


I think he means that there is no work that means "an Emacs package
archive". So, for example, take the docstring of
package-refresh-packages...

Download the ELPA archive description if needed.
This informs Emacs about the latest versions of all packages, and
makes them available for download.


This is actually wrong because it can download several (although by
default it downloads only the elpa.gnu.org one). It could be corrected:

Download all ELPA archive descriptions.

But now we are using "ELPA" to mean "a generic emacs package archive".
So, we can't distinguish between elpa.gnu.org and marmalade.


For myself, I would just substitute "ELPA" with "package". So

Download all package archive descriptions.

The "Emacs-Lisp" and "Archive" from ELPA are sort of implicit I think.
Actually, the "Archive" is explicit!


Phil

Re: What's Elpa? (I.e. what did you decide the name refers to?)

[Stefan Monnier]

> Or insist that people say ‟GNU elpa” for that one?

I always say "GNU ELPA" for the ELPA archive at elpa.gnu.org.
And "elpa.git" for the Git repository hosting the corresponding sources.


        Stefan

Re: What's Elpa? (I.e. what did you decide the name refers to?)

[Stefan Monnier]

> But now we are using "ELPA" to mean "a generic emacs package archive".

Yes, that's what it means.


        Stefan

Re: What's Elpa? (I.e. what did you decide the name refers to?)

[Stephen Leake]

Kelly Dean <kelly@prtime.org> writes:

> ... the repository at elpa.gnu.org

> Or insist that people say "GNU elpa" for that one? 

+1

Perhaps suggest "GELPA" as a shorter name, similar to MELPA, which is
short for "Milkypostman's ELPA".

-- 
-- Stephe

Re: What's Elpa? (I.e. what did you decide the name refers to?)

[Ted Zlatanov]

On Thu, 08 Jan 2015 06:27:13 +0000 Kelly Dean <kelly@prtime.org> wrote: 

KD> In general usage, it now seems to mean a particular repository (the
KD> one at elpa.gnu.org), with others being Melpa and Marmalade. Unless
KD> this is another case of my limited reading comprehension abilities.
...
KD> Or insist that people say ‟GNU elpa” for that one? Then there's ‟Melpa elpa” and ‟Marmalade elpa”. Cumbersome.

KD> This isn't something that would normally matter, but it can cause misunderstanding when people say things like ‟a package in elpa”.

Yes.  See http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.devel/132634/focus=133017
for the full prior discussion, years ago.

Ted