Re: [Emacs-diffs] master 4449301: * etc/NEWS: Improve documentation of 'package-initialize'.

[Stefan Kangas <stefankangas@gmail.com>]

Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> writes:

> > +(when (version< emacs-version "27.1")
> > +  (package-initialize))
>
> That doesn't do the right thing with the current `master` (nor will it
> with Emacs-27.1's pretest).

Good point, thanks.

> Maybe a better option is
>
>     (when package-enable-at-startup
>       (package-initialize))

Yes, that would work.  But I'm not sure I understand this variable in general.

It is a defcustom (a user option), but:

1. It's ineffective when set from the custom interface, since it has
to be in the early init file.  Right?

2. It is a user option, but gets set automatically by
package-initialize.  This makes it a bit confusing, because
describe-variable says:

package-enable-at-startup is a variable defined in ‘package.el’.
Its value is nil
Original value was t

I initially thought this meant *I* had changed it for some reason,
because that's usually what it means when Emacs reports that it has
changed, and then I was confused when I couldn't find out where.  Only
after a while did I understand that this is a user option that doubles
as a variable that tracks if the package system was initialized or
not.

Would this be better as a defvar instead?  Or should we introduce a
new variable to mean that we are already initialized?  I don't mean to
rehash old discussions here, so feel free to refer me to earlier
discussions if you've already had them.

> or
>
>     (unless package-activated-list
>       (package-initialize))

That could also work.  Do we prefer not to do this by version?  For
example, my suggestion would probably have been:

(unless (< emacs-major-version 27)
  (package-initialize))

Best regards,
Stefan Kangas