Re: Merging Finder into package mechanism

[Chong Yidong <cyd@stupidchicken.com>]

Juri Linkov <juri@jurta.org> writes:

>> package.el has a variable `package--builtins-base' which defines
>> packages built into Emacs.  This is similar, but not identical, to the
>> Finder conception of a package.  I would like to remove the discrepancy.
>
> I think Keywords should be additional package attribute
> along with Name, Version, Brief description, Long description.

There should definitely be a way to search packages by keyword, but I am
not sure if setting them as package attributes is necessary.  I am
experimenting with a few different approaches, such as storing a
keyword-to-package map in the repository.

>> Eventually, finder-by-keyword should allow searching for elpa packages
>> as well as built-in packages.
>
> Finder scans local files to collect package information, so it could
> also connect to elpa.gnu.org, but this requires Internet access during
> `make finder-data'.

I don't think that's necessary.  We can simply have `make finder-data'
collect information about built-in packages.  During
`package-initialize' (usually called at startup), Emacs can supplement
the data in finder-inf.el using cached information about elpa.gnu.org
packages.  During `package-refresh-contents', when Emacs connects to
elpa.gnu.org, it can update this information.

>> The proposed technical steps are as follows.  First, merge
>> `finder-package-info' and `package--builtins-base' into a single
>> variable.  This is a backward-incompatible change, but I think that's
>> acceptable, since third-party code is unlikely to make use of
>> `finder-package-info'.
>
> Does this mean that `list-packages' will list all Emacs built-in
> packages (in addition to elpa packages)?  Maybe not bad, after all.

Yeah.  There's a lot of built-in packages (around 400), so we should
probably also add a toggle to hide them.