Re: BBDB v3 approaching release

[Ulrich Mueller <ulm@gentoo.org>]

>>>>> On Wed, 29 May 2013, Stefan Monnier wrote:

>> How do I configure install locations of a package if it's in ELPA
>> format?

> You don't.

Why is this better than having them configurable? Especially, why are
you asking that a package like BBDB that has a perfectly working
autoconf build system should _remove_ it?

>> Especially, if the package has non-lisp components?

> You leave them alongside the Elisp files.

Emacs itself uses a different layout and keeps non-lisp files in
different directories like etc or info. (Hopefully there are no plans
to change that?)

For example, for Info files it's really a PITA if they're not
collected in one (or at least, few) central locations.

> And when you need them, your Elisp package will find them by looking
> around itself (it can get access to its own location via
> `load-file-name').

This means that anyone who wants to adhere to some standard like FHS
must move files around manually. I had to do this way too often when
packaging things for Gentoo.

Most packages are at least friendly enough and spend a defvar or
defcustom that allows to configure these directories (often with a
fallback to the above-mentioned load-file-name location).

Ulrich