RE: Customizable modes and package.el

[Drew Adams <drew.adams@oracle.com>]

> > > `package-initialize' could look into some file like
> > > ~/.emacs.d/package-init.el and load that before initializing.
> >
> > Please, not Yet Another File That Changes Emacs' Behaviour
> The file would not exist unless the user manually created it. 
> I'm not thrilled at this solution, and I'm open to alternatives, 
> but we have to do something. 

This thread was started with a question about using Customize
instead of requiring users to put Lisp code in their init files.

The user asked, "What did I do wrong?"  The answer is apparently
that Emacs is not yet ready for you to use Customize to configure
your use of package.el.

That's what should be done, IMO, whether now or later: enable
users to configure their use of package.el using Customize,
without resorting to Lisp in init files.

If for some reason that is not possible for all use cases, it
should still be a goal for the most common use cases.

I'd be among the first to say that good use of Emacs is very
much about making use of Emacs Lisp, but do we need to force
users to put code in their init files in order to make good use
of the package system?