Re: Bundling GNU ELPA packages

[David Engster <deng@randomsample.de>]

Tassilo Horn writes:
> Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> writes:
>
>>> The only downside I can see is that users upgrading from Emacs 24 to
>>> 25 might get startup errors because formerly built-in packages aren't
>>> anymore.  But that can be documented easily:
>>> 
>>>   If you used the built-in org-mode version in Emacs < 25, do
>>> 
>>>     1. emacs -Q
>>>     2. M-x package-install RET org RET
>>>     3. Now you can restart emacs without -Q
>>
>> There are only disadvantages here.  You add conditions that, if they
>> are not satisfied, will interfere with the upgrade.  It's a nuisance
>> for no good reason.
>
> Ok, I can understand bundling org and gnus because they've previously
> been built-in.  But when we now start bundling even more packages, those
> are the next that can never ever be removed for that very same reason.

We shouldn't bundle packages willy-nilly, obviously. You are right that
bundled packages become "core" packages, which will have to be
maintained for a long time. company-mode has been a contender for moving
into Emacs proper for quite some time now. Emacs is in dire need of an
"pop-up-alike" completion method.

> Just saying: if a package is distributed with emacs, that's a kind of
> guarantee that it'll still be there in the next decades to come.

True.

-David