Packaging css-mode for GNU ELPA

Packaging css-mode for GNU ELPA

[Simen Heggestøyl]

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Hi!

I'm in a situation where I want to use the master version of css-mode,
but I want to stay at Emacs 24 for all other purposes. This can of
course be solved by copying css-mode.el into my local Emacs
installation once in a while, which is what I've been doing so far.

However, I imagine other users may in the same situation as me,
especially since the master version of css-mode now provides a whole
new scss-mode as well.

I think it would be very convenient to be able to subscribe to an ELPA
version of css-mode, which could be updated more frequently than Emacs
releases. Is there a procedure for turning a built-in mode into an
ELPA package, and at the same time keeping the built-in package? It
looks like for instance ada-mode is in a similar situation.

-- Simen

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Re: Packaging css-mode for GNU ELPA

[Xue Fuqiao]

On Sat, Jun 20, 2015 at 9:17 PM, Simen Heggestøyl <simenheg@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi!

Hi Simen,

> I think it would be very convenient to be able to subscribe to an ELPA
> version of css-mode, which could be updated more frequently than Emacs
> releases. Is there a procedure for turning a built-in mode into an
> ELPA package, and at the same time keeping the built-in package? It
> looks like for instance ada-mode is in a similar situation.

I don't really have any experience with packages, but perhaps this thread
can help you:
https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-devel/2014-11/msg00257.html

Re: Packaging css-mode for GNU ELPA

[Artur Malabarba]

> I think it would be very convenient to be able to subscribe to an ELPA
> version of css-mode, which could be updated more frequently than Emacs
> releases.

I also like to have as many packages on GElpa as possible, but it's
important to note the cost of this is not zero. Given that other
developers can (and occasionally will) edit the package in one place
without knowing to update the other, it can quickly get messy.
This would be much cleaner, if someone did that Gelpa-Bootstraping
thing Stefan's been asking for.

> Is there a procedure for turning a built-in mode into an
> ELPA package, and at the same time keeping the built-in package? It
> looks like for instance ada-mode is in a similar situation.

To be a proper package, it needs to have proper package headers and
footers. In the case of css-mode, it's only missing a `Version'
header.
Once it's a proper package, it's only a matter of dropping it inside
the GElpa repo. The biggest issue, as I said, is keeping it updated.

Re: Packaging css-mode for GNU ELPA

[Stephen Leake]

Simen Heggestøyl <simenheg@gmail.com> writes:

> I think it would be very convenient to be able to subscribe to an ELPA
> version of css-mode, which could be updated more frequently than Emacs
> releases. Is there a procedure for turning a built-in mode into an
> ELPA package, and at the same time keeping the built-in package? It
> looks like for instance ada-mode is in a similar situation.

For ada-mode, I just started the Gnu ELPA package, and told the ada-mode
mailing list about it. The internal ada-mode is no longer maintained
(except as required due to changes elsewhere in Emacs).

There is a vague plan that it should be possible to include a Gnu ELPA
package as part of the distribution, so that there would not need to be
a copy of the package in Emacs git.

However, no one has volunteered to implement that.

I plan to declare the internal ada-mode obsolete and eventually delete
it, after I get some speed issues with the ELPA ada-mode improved.

-- 
-- Stephe