Re: [PATCH] Re: package.el changes before the feature freeze

[Chong Yidong <cyd@gnu.org>]

> All those make me wonder: do we need the `name' slot to be symbol?
> Why not let it be a string?

Using symbols for package names makes sense conceptually, since a
package name is often the same as the package's library prefix
(e.g. debbugs) or a particular command provided by the library
(e.g. nhexl-mode).  So you'd practically never want to use a package
name that isn't also a good symbol name.  Also, it lets package.el uses
assq rather than assoc in several places, which is always nice.