From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Tim X Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: Are there an elisp package manager like apt-get or cpan? Date: Sun, 13 Aug 2006 17:06:47 +1000 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Message-ID: <87wt9d5d2w.fsf@tiger.rapttech.com.au> References: <1155441044.103183.254590@m79g2000cwm.googlegroups.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: main.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1155454837 18583 80.91.229.2 (13 Aug 2006 07:40:37 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 13 Aug 2006 07:40:37 +0000 (UTC) Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sun Aug 13 09:40:36 2006 Return-path: Envelope-to: geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by ciao.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1GCAaF-0000qR-6u for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Sun, 13 Aug 2006 09:40:31 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1GCAaE-0005c9-Ox for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Sun, 13 Aug 2006 03:40:30 -0400 Original-Path: shelby.stanford.edu!newsfeed.stanford.edu!headwall.stanford.edu!newshub.sdsu.edu!news.astraweb.com!router2.astraweb.com!216.168.1.165.MISMATCH!sn-xt-sjc-05!sn-xt-sjc-01!sn-post-sjc-01!supernews.com!corp.supernews.com!not-for-mail Original-Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help User-Agent: Gnus/5.110006 (No Gnus v0.6) Emacs/22.0.50 (gnu/linux) Cancel-Lock: sha1:G455uZMxrPuub+Z/bD3Ovy/8m5w= Original-X-Complaints-To: abuse@supernews.com Original-Lines: 53 Original-Xref: shelby.stanford.edu gnu.emacs.help:141022 Original-To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:36648 Archived-At: "Þorne" writes: > chylli wrote: >> Hi. Are there an emacs lisp package manager like apt-get in debian or >> cpan in perl ? When I want to install a package, I just run a command, >> then emacs will find proper package in proper web site and install >> it. > > Funny, i was just thinking of writing one the other day. I got to > thinking that it would really be trivial to write something using > ange-ftp or tramp or whatever. Something like asdf-install for Emacs. > > You could have a function like `esdf-load' that goes and looks up a > keyword in a known flat-file database on the net consisting of (KEYWORD > . location) pairs, then grab the source from the location and load it. > `esdf-find-file' could do the same but just open it in a buffer. And > `esdf-install' could grab it, save it to `esdf-install-directory' and > add (load "foo") to your .emacs (or something a little better). > > And it could be called recursively. So developers who have packages > using more than one file could have a package definition file that is > what esdf-install would point to, and that file would just have calls > to esdf-install for all the files in the package, in whatever order was > desired. > > But the thing is, it is so easy to do this already if you know the > location of the file that it is hardly necessary. So the real problem > is finding someone who wants to keep a database online of such > information, or even wants to archive the packages themselves as actual > downloadable, loadable .el files, rather that links to text in html > files and Usenet postings and such. There is the Emacs Lisp List, and > the emacswiki, but the the data tends not to be consistently in the > form of clean .el files. > I think you hit th enail on the head - the real problem is that we don't have a central, maintained and up-to-date repository of emacs packages. There have been anumber of emacs lisp archives in the past, but they all seem to last only as long as the person who initiated the effort is prepared to maintain things. Once they move on to something else, it all just dies. It would be nice if some body like GNU would setup and maintain a single comprehensive elisp archive. For debian users, a lot can be achieved by taking on the responsability for packaging and maintaining a deb version - then apt-get will do what we need. Tim -- tcross (at) rapttech dot com dot au