Why does GNU ELPA have old package versions?

Why does GNU ELPA have old package versions?

[Jorge P. de Morais Neto]

Hi.  I noticed for several packages that GNU ELPA has older package
versions than MELPA and often even older than MELPA-Stable.  Below are
packages (with names from A to F) that appear both in GNU and
MELPA-Stable, but with different versions:

| Package           |     GNU | MELPA-Stable |         MELPA |
|-------------------+---------+--------------+---------------|
| aggressive-indent |   1.8.3 |        1.9.0 | 20200512.1207 |
| beacon            |   1.3.3 |        1.3.4 | 20190104.1931 |
| coffee-mode       | 0.4.1.1 |        0.6.3 | 20200315.1133 |
| company-math      |     1.3 |          1.4 | 20200131.2337 |
| counsel           |  0.13.1 |       0.13.0 | 20200619.1030 |
| fountain-mode     |   2.7.3 |        3.1.0 |  20200620.659 |

So except for package `counsel' (out of six analyzed packages), the GNU
ELPA version is even older than MELPA-Stable.  Why is that?  Does GNU
ELPA have additional quality checks before including a new package
version, or is it just undermaintained?  I prefer to use official GNU
software, as it generally has superior quality and ethics.  However, I
also love running the latest semi-stable version of important packages;
for example, I write this on GNU Emacs 27.0.91.

Regards

-- 
- <https://jorgemorais.gitlab.io/justice-for-rms/>
- I am Brazilian.  I hope my English is correct and I welcome feedback.
- Free Software Supporter: <https://www.fsf.org/free-software-supporter>
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Why does GNU ELPA have old package versions?

[Jorge P. de Morais Neto]

Hi.  I noticed for several packages that GNU ELPA has older package
versions than MELPA and often even older than MELPA-Stable.  Below are
packages (with names from A to F) that appear both in GNU and
MELPA-Stable, but with different versions:

| Package           |     GNU | MELPA-Stable |         MELPA |
|-------------------+---------+--------------+---------------|
| aggressive-indent |   1.8.3 |        1.9.0 | 20200512.1207 |
| beacon            |   1.3.3 |        1.3.4 | 20190104.1931 |
| coffee-mode       | 0.4.1.1 |        0.6.3 | 20200315.1133 |
| company-math      |     1.3 |          1.4 | 20200131.2337 |
| counsel           |  0.13.1 |       0.13.0 | 20200619.1030 |
| fountain-mode     |   2.7.3 |        3.1.0 |  20200620.659 |

So except for package `counsel' (out of six analyzed packages), the GNU
ELPA version is even older than MELPA-Stable.  Why is that?  Does GNU
ELPA have additional quality checks before including a new package
version, or is it just undermaintained?  I prefer to use official GNU
software, as it generally has superior quality and ethics.  However, I
also love running the latest semi-stable version of important packages;
for example, I write this on GNU Emacs 27.0.91.

Regards

-- 
- <https://jorgemorais.gitlab.io/justice-for-rms/>
- I am Brazilian.  I hope my English is correct and I welcome feedback.
- Free Software Supporter: <https://www.fsf.org/free-software-supporter>
- If an email of mine arrives at your spam box, please notify me.

Re: Why does GNU ELPA have old package versions?

[Stefan Monnier]

> Hi.  I noticed for several packages that GNU ELPA has older package
> versions than MELPA and often even older than MELPA-Stable.

It's usually a sign that the package maintainer forgot to update the one
that's in GNU ELPA.  The better course of action is to contact the
maintainer to bring this to their attention.


        Stefan

Re: Why does GNU ELPA have old package versions?

[Jorge P. de Morais Neto]

Em [2020-06-29 seg 22:19:03-0400], Stefan Monnier escreveu:

> It's usually a sign that the package maintainer forgot to update the one
> that's in GNU ELPA.  The better course of action is to contact the
> maintainer to bring this to their attention.

Thank you for the information.  I may contact some maintainers then.

Regards