What's Elpa? (I.e. what did you decide the name refers to?)

[Kelly Dean <kelly@prtime.org>]

In general usage, it now seems to mean a particular repository (the one at elpa.gnu.org), with others being Melpa and Marmalade. Unless this is another case of my limited reading comprehension abilities.

In package.el, an elpa is a repository in general (not a particular one). E.g. metadata for all repositories (not just from elpa.gnu.org) goes into the elpa/archives directory, and the docstrings and comments in package.el use the name in the general sense.

It's much easier to substitute a few words in a source code file than to change people's habits, so despite the name apparently being general originally, maybe it would be clearer to pick a new name to use in package.el (and for general usage) for the general sense, and let ‟Elpa” mean the repository at elpa.gnu.org.

Or insist that people say ‟GNU elpa” for that one? Then there's ‟Melpa elpa” and ‟Marmalade elpa”. Cumbersome.

This isn't something that would normally matter, but it can cause misunderstanding when people say things like ‟a package in elpa”.