Re: ELPA policy

[Glenn Morris <rgm@gnu.org>]

Chong Yidong wrote:

> (Incidentally, there are also some packages in Emacs that might be
> usefully moved out into elpa.gnu.org, e.g. since they are so rarely
> used.  We could also move some of the files in obsolete/ into a
> subrepository, e.g. elpa.gnu.org/packages/obsolete)

I don't see how that would work. If, as soon as something becomes
obsolete, you move it to elpa, you've defeated the entire point of
obsolescence. Emacs goes from "you can assume we have function foo" to
"you can't rely on us having function foo" (unless your users have
added an optional package).

If on the other hand you move it to elpa at the point it which it
would normally be deleted altogether, then you're just prolonging its
life, when the whole point of making things obsolete is to migrate
people away from them.

And to move it at some intermediate stage seems a little pointless.

> (Also, as stated before, the FSF's policy is that for a package to be
> listed on elpa.gnu.org its copyright must be assigned, in the exact same
> way as if it's included in Emacs core.)

I was surprised to see AUCTeX there, since I thought its copyright was
notoriously hard to assign. At a quick glance, tex-fptex.el, tex-jp.el
have non-FSF copyrights in the headers, and there is no information
for the images/ directory. The texinfo source of the manuals and pdfs
also appears to be missing (maybe this is by design).