From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Richard Stallman Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: Auto-installing packages? Date: Tue, 18 Sep 2018 23:40:28 -0400 Message-ID: References: <8736u8s5q8.fsf@russet.org.uk> <87sh264w88.fsf@russet.org.uk> Reply-To: rms@gnu.org NNTP-Posting-Host: blaine.gmane.org Content-Type: text/plain; charset=Utf-8 X-Trace: blaine.gmane.org 1537328585 10842 195.159.176.226 (19 Sep 2018 03:43:05 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@blaine.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 19 Sep 2018 03:43:05 +0000 (UTC) Cc: emacs-devel@gnu.org, monnier@IRO.UMontreal.CA, raman@google.com To: phillip.lord@russet.org.uk (Phillip Lord) Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Wed Sep 19 05:43:01 2018 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([208.118.235.17]) by blaine.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.84_2) (envelope-from ) id 1g2TOG-0002go-Jg for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Wed, 19 Sep 2018 05:43:00 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:43512 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1g2TQN-0000Ib-3Y for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Tue, 18 Sep 2018 23:45:11 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:41927) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1g2TMq-0005YG-6K for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 18 Sep 2018 23:41:33 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1g2TMp-0005vQ-97 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 18 Sep 2018 23:41:32 -0400 Original-Received: from fencepost.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::e]:60915) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1g2TLq-0004pM-5E; Tue, 18 Sep 2018 23:40:30 -0400 Original-Received: from rms by fencepost.gnu.org with local (Exim 4.82) (envelope-from ) id 1g2TLo-0007Es-CQ; Tue, 18 Sep 2018 23:40:28 -0400 In-Reply-To: <87sh264w88.fsf@russet.org.uk> (phillip.lord@russet.org.uk) X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.2.x-3.x [generic] X-Received-From: 2001:4830:134:3::e X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.21 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: "Emacs-devel" Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:229960 Archived-At: [[[ To any NSA and FBI agents reading my email: please consider ]]] [[[ whether defending the US Constitution against all enemies, ]]] [[[ foreign or domestic, requires you to follow Snowden's example. ]]] In response to > > > So, for the case of Emacs and ELPA installing over the network vs > > > pre-packaged is, I think, merely technical. I wrote this: > > That is a valid point, in the case of GNU ELPA. > > > > But would that facility be limited to GNU ELPA? > > Or would it also be used with other package archives > > that are not part of Emacs? You responded > Emacs already has the ability to do this, but it is up to the user to > choose to do this. That doesn't address the issue I am raising. It is a tangent. Emacs has the ability to do any computation at all, if a user programs it. The issue here is not what Emacs "has the ability to do", but what it offers/encourages/suggests/makes convenient. If we are going to add a convenient facility to load external packages, it should be for ELPA (which is more or less a part of Emacs), not for other package archives (which are NOT part of Emacs). In general, treating all package archives alike is something to avoid. It is a pitfall. -- Dr Richard Stallman President, Free Software Foundation (https://gnu.org, https://fsf.org) Internet Hall-of-Famer (https://internethalloffame.org)