Re: Adding AUCTeX to core Re: Why not include all ELPA packages in an Emacs release?

[Stefan Kangas <stefankangas@gmail.com>]

Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> writes:

> Telling us which versions are "safe" is already what maintainers do when
> they bump the version number, so it's not necessarily extra work.
> And it's much less work than sync'ing changes between two branches with
> unrelated history, like what the Org guys do, what the CEDET guys
> tried to do (and failed doing), what the Gnus guys did (and stopped
> doing at some point), what Alan does with CC-mode, etc...

The "etc." there is not to be underestimated either, BTW.

We have several open bugs with packages that are years or even a decade
plus out-of-synch.  Even when everyone is still collaborating -- which
is not necessarily the case given the time scales involved with Emacs --
it still is a pain.

When people stop maintaining packages, for legitimate reasons such as
lack of interest, life, etc., it's more of an uphill battle.

Our experience here tells me that adding in even more opportunities for
that to happen is probably not what we want.