From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: "Stephen J. Turnbull" Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: package and testing rant (was Re: package.el, auto-installation, and auto-removal) Date: Wed, 12 Nov 2014 12:20:59 +0900 Message-ID: <87389pxfxg.fsf@uwakimon.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp> References: <87a943umku.fsf@lifelogs.com> <87ppcvm7fj.fsf@newcastle.ac.uk> <87vbmndk46.fsf@lifelogs.com> <87wq72ls2h.fsf@ferrier.me.uk> <87k332lnn3.fsf_-_@ferrier.me.uk> <83fvdpn30d.fsf@gnu.org> <83bnodmxp7.fsf@gnu.org> <877fz1sjef.fsf@fencepost.gnu.org> NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1415762514 5958 80.91.229.3 (12 Nov 2014 03:21:54 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 12 Nov 2014 03:21:54 +0000 (UTC) Cc: emacs-devel@gnu.org To: David Kastrup Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Wed Nov 12 04:21:47 2014 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([208.118.235.17]) by plane.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1XoOV9-0001f6-Ae for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Wed, 12 Nov 2014 04:21:47 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:52243 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1XoOV8-0004Mf-SY for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Tue, 11 Nov 2014 22:21:46 -0500 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:46939) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1XoOUs-0004MB-8I for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 11 Nov 2014 22:21:37 -0500 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1XoOUk-0005Nz-OG for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 11 Nov 2014 22:21:30 -0500 Original-Received: from shako.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp ([130.158.97.161]:50743) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1XoOUb-0005Dz-FP; Tue, 11 Nov 2014 22:21:13 -0500 Original-Received: from uwakimon.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp (uwakimon.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp [130.158.99.156]) (using TLSv1 with cipher AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by shako.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp (Postfix) with ESMTPS id F12031C3ADE; Wed, 12 Nov 2014 12:20:59 +0900 (JST) Original-Received: by uwakimon.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp (Postfix, from userid 1000) id CDEAC1A2844; Wed, 12 Nov 2014 12:20:59 +0900 (JST) In-Reply-To: <877fz1sjef.fsf@fencepost.gnu.org> X-Mailer: VM undefined under 21.5 (beta34) "kale" acf1c26e3019 XEmacs Lucid (x86_64-unknown-linux) X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 3.x X-Received-From: 130.158.97.161 X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:176794 Archived-At: David Kastrup writes: > Git is not "for users". It is for developers. That, unfortunately, is a distinction that doesn't exist with git. I have many students with no detectable neural activity as far as software development goes keeping their theses in a group-accessible git repo. That means I don't have to fish their content out of some broken mail message, and it keeps a record of when they are actually working on their documents. (If I could only get them to use Emacsen and TeX so git diff would be useful! But that's another story.) Some of them have actually discovered that the log is useful to them too! True, from the developer's POV, git is not a great way to distribute products-with-source because it doesn't keep Make relationships up to date. However, that doesn't mean it doesn't make a good way to distribute product to users. Perhaps this tension could be addressed by having a "developer" branch (which could be trunk = "master", of course) which assumes a complete suite of tools for developers, and a "distribute" branch containing products that require tools other than Emacs itself for users. Thinking out loud, using the current "maintenance" branch as a "distribute" branch might even work. With appropriate tools (to be written AFAIK, unfortunately), you can recover (to a close approximation) the necessary timestamp information to avoid unnecessary rebuilding by Make, too. And of course you could resolve the tension by declaring Emacs's and/or ELPA's git repos to be developer-only. I'm pointing out possibilities, not imperatives.