Re: [PATCH] Option for sorting package-selected-packages

[Philip Kaludercic <philipk@posteo.net>]

Ivan Sokolov <ivan-p-sokolov@ya.ru> writes:

> Nowadays many people keep their configuration under a VCS. I think this
> new option might help them get tidier diffs and avoid merge conflicts.
>
> It might make sense to enable this option by default.
>
> From eb996ddc331e34a1c97331768420b9c6dfd30c15 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
> From: Ivan Sokolov <ivan-p-sokolov@ya.ru>
> Date: Fri, 24 Mar 2023 23:27:13 +0300
> Subject: [PATCH] New option for sorting package-selected-packages
>
> * lisp/emacs-lisp/package.el (package-sort-selected-packages): New defcustom.
> ---
>  lisp/emacs-lisp/package.el | 12 +++++++++++-
>  1 file changed, 11 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
>
> diff --git a/lisp/emacs-lisp/package.el b/lisp/emacs-lisp/package.el
> index 0258ed52bee..1e11be4ab3b 100644
> --- a/lisp/emacs-lisp/package.el
> +++ b/lisp/emacs-lisp/package.el
> @@ -404,6 +404,13 @@ a sane initial value."
>    :version "25.1"
>    :type '(repeat symbol))
>  
> +(defcustom package-sort-selected-packages nil
> +  "If non-nil interactive functions will sort `package-selected-packages'.
> +You can use this variable to get a nicer diffs if you keep your
> +`custom-file' under version control system."
> +  :version "30.1"
> +  :type 'boolean)
>
>  (defcustom package-native-compile nil
>    "Non-nil means to natively compile packages as part of their installation.
>  This controls ahead-of-time compilation of packages when they are
> @@ -1974,7 +1981,10 @@ Used to populate `package-selected-packages'."
>  (defun package--save-selected-packages (&optional value)
>    "Set and save `package-selected-packages' to VALUE."
>    (when value
> -    (setq package-selected-packages value))
> +    (setq package-selected-packages
> +          (if package-sort-selected-packages
> +              (sort value #'string<)
> +            value)))

Why not just always sort it?  Or is there a use-case where keeping the
"arbitrary" order is preferable?

>    (if after-init-time
>        (customize-save-variable 'package-selected-packages package-selected-packages)
>      (add-hook 'after-init-hook #'package--save-selected-packages)))

-- 
Philip Kaludercic