Re: Easy configuration of a site-lisp directory

[No Wayman <iarchivedmywholelife@gmail.com>]

>One particularly unsightly side effect of this is 50 lines of 
>gnarly
>elisp to get around org-mode's needing a preliminary call to 
>`make`.

Could you point me to the 50 lines you're referring to and perhaps 
give a few words on what you feel is particularly 'gnarly' about 
them?
(Feel free to open an issue on our repository or drop the 
In-Reply-To if you feel like this is getting too far off topic)
I'm open to criticism, but I'm not exactly sure what you're 
critiquing here.
The org-mode recipe we provide uses elisp to execute some 
pre-build steps that are necessary to generate org-vesrion.el.
We chose to use elisp rather than rely on Org's provided makefile 
because we received complaints from Windows users who were missing
make on their systems. 
However, this elisp is very similar (almost identical) to the code 
Org uses itself in its makefile to do the same.

Or perhaps you're referring to the need for such "pre-build" 
machinery in the first place?
In that case, I would ask how el-paso deals with packages which 
require build steps (whether running make or some other arbitrary 
steps) prior to being compiled/generating autoloads?
For example, how does el-paso build Org, mu4e, or magit correctly 
and directly from source?
I believe last time I asked the answer was "it doesn't", but I'm 
curious if that has changed at all or if you plan to address that 
in a future version of el-paso.

>It's also impossible to take seriously a README that is 23,000 
>words, but what do I know?

I agree with you that the README should be shortened.
I have been working on that when I can, but other issues take 
priority over that right now.
For what it's worth, many users compliment us on the thoroughness 
and length of the README.
Probably just a matter of taste.

I'll have to dedicate some time to reviewing el-paso.
I'm sure I'll learn something.

Thanks,

Nick (co-maintainer of straight.el)