Re: Adding package-vc to ELPA

[Philip Kaludercic <philipk@posteo.net>]

Philip Kaludercic <philipk@posteo.net> writes:

> Jonas Bernoulli <jonas@bernoul.li> writes:
>
>> Philip Kaludercic <philipk@posteo.net> writes:
>>
>>> Jonas Bernoulli <jonas@bernoul.li> writes:
>>>
>>>> Hello,
>>>
>>> Hi, hope I can add a few useful comments here.
>>>
>>>> I would like to request that "package.el" be added to GNU Elpa as a
>>>> "core" package.  This would make new features available to users who are
>>>> stuck on older Emacs releases and it would even bring us one step closer
>>>> to being able to make backward incompatible changes in the future.
>>>>
>>>> Some examples for why that would be desirable:
>>>>
>>>> - A recent addition that could be useful is the new "package-vc.el"
>>>>   (which I think should be distributed as part of the `package' package,
>>>>   but it could also be distributed as a separate core package).
>>>
>>> This will be difficult, since package-vc depends on the new "vc-clone"
>>> function, which would also have to be provided on ELPA to work.
>>
>> The simplest way to deal with that, while still making the latest
>> Package available to users of older Emacs releases, would be to *not*
>> include package-vc.el in the Package package.
>>
>> Going one step further we could make package-vc available as a separate
>> package.  That would not be of much use *now*, but future improvements
>> would then be available to users of Emacs 29.
>
> I would in principle be interested in supporting this.
>
>> I had a look at vc-clone and a few vc-*-clone.  They seem trivial
>> enough to backport, either as part of Compat or in package-vc.el.

I have put some more though into this, and I don't think adding the new
VC functionality to Compat or package-vc.el would be a good idea.
Beside vc-clone we would also need `vc-prepare-patch' and the
"last-change" method.  What would be imaginable would be to add the
package to ELPA and make it depend on Emacs 29?  Would that sound
useful?