Re: Install packages picked up from a list automatically.

[Tim Landscheidt <tim@tim-landscheidt.de>]

Hongyi Zhao <hongyi.zhao@gmail.com> wrote:

> […]

> I'm a thorough beginner as for emacs lisp. Could you please give me
> some hints/notes/comments on the pros can cons of the above two
> mentioned methods? Thanks in advance.

Unwanted advice: I would not (try to) install packages as
part of your initialization.  These might fail or install
incompatible versions that you did not expect.  Even if they
succeed they require network connectivity and slow down
Emacs's start-up.

I would separate two phases:

1. Install Emacs, distribution-provided Emacs packages, your
   .emacs and other initialization files, and (M)ELPA-pro-
   vided Emacs packages, the latter either by copying them
   from your own "cache" (if they do not depend on the ma-
   chine's architecture) or installing them on the command
   line.  You can use tools like Ansible to automate this
   process so that you can just point Ansible at a host and
   it will do everything necessary (you could, of course,
   also write such a script in Emacs Lisp :-)).

2. Use Emacs everyday with as few external dependencies as
   possible.  If Emacs starts up, it should do so quickly
   and never have to wait for some other machine.

Tim