Re: Request to distribute Casual packages on NonGNU ELPA

[Philip Kaludercic <philipk@posteo.net>]

Charles Choi <kickingvegas@gmail.com> writes:

> Philip - 
>
> Thanks for responding. My answers to your questions as follows:
>
>> I haven't tried the code yet, and reviewing these will take some time,
>> but my understanding that this is reinventing a lot of Emacs
>> functionality using Transient, right?
>
> The Casual packages should be viewed as user interface porcelains to
> existing Emacs functionality and takes great effort to not "reinvent"
> nor re-implement existing commands and their associated variables. No
> functions are advised by Casual. The Casual packages do however
> re-imagine the interactive user interfaces to said commands and
> variables as keyboard-driven menus.

Sorry, I was not clear: Read the "Reinventing" as "Rebinding".  And IIUC
then this is the case.

>> Do you have any preferred or recommended order in which you think that I
>> should review the code?  From the names I am guessing that casual-lib is
>> a dependency that the others share?
>
> casual-lib is a common library to all the Casual packages. It is
> recommended that this package be reviewed first. casual-suite is an
> umbrella package that includes all Casual packages and as such should
> be reviewed last.
>
> At current there are 13 Casual packages to review. Here's a
> recommended order of review that skews toward the simpler packages to
> be reviewed earlier. That said the only strict guidance is to review
> casual-lib first and casual-suite last.
>
> https://github.com/kickingvegas/casual-lib/
>
> https://github.com/kickingvegas/casual-isearch/
> https://github.com/kickingvegas/casual-symbol-overlay/
> https://github.com/kickingvegas/casual-avy/
> https://github.com/kickingvegas/casual-re-builder/
> https://github.com/kickingvegas/casual-dired/
> https://github.com/kickingvegas/casual-bookmarks/
> https://github.com/kickingvegas/casual-calc/
> https://github.com/kickingvegas/casual-ibuffer/
> https://github.com/kickingvegas/casual-info/
> https://github.com/kickingvegas/casual-agenda/
> https://github.com/kickingvegas/casual-editkit/
>
> https://github.com/kickingvegas/casual-suite/

Thanks.

>> Another question that I can only raise now as I haven't looked at the
>> code in greater detail yet is how deep the transient dependency goes.
>> Would it be possible to re-use quick-help instead?  I had sketched
>> something along those lines a few months back, where a map could bind a
>> pseudo-key to return a `help-quick-sections' like structure.  The
>> advantage is that you only have to list commands and descriptions,
>> without trying to bind key again inside of Transient, as I understand it
>> being the case right now.
>
> The Casual packages use Transient to implement keyboard-driven menus
> with opinionated bindings. I consider these binding decisions to be
> core to the value of Casual in that they support a truly hand-crafted
> user experience. I have no interest in refactoring their behavior to
> use quick-help, nor in maintaining strict conformance to existing
> default command bindings. That said, many existing default command
> bindings are supported in Casual. If any of these positions are a
> block to publication on NonGNU ELPA, I will retract my request for
> review. Hopefully though this is not the case as I have the greatest
> enthusiasm to see these packages being reviewed and published on ELPA.

No, none of this is blocking.  I just find it worthwhile to discuss some
more foundational questions before adding a package to ELPA, as an
outsides perspective can sometimes help to uncover questions that an
author might not have considered until now.

>
> All my best -
>
> Charles
>
> —
> Charles Y. Choi, Ph.D.
> kickingvegas@gmail.com
>
>
>

-- 
	Philip Kaludercic on siskin