Re: GNU ELPA; mw 0.1: modular MediaWiki interface for Emacs

[Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca>]

>> Speaking of the GNU ELPA Git repository, – it seems to be a
>> monolithic one (that is: no submodules are used.)

You get to choose (we call the two options "subtree" and "external").
Auctex, rudel, w3, and a few more are installed as "externals",
i.e. similar to Git submodules (tho hand-managed).

The "external" ones are stored as branches in the same repository
(e.g. the externals/auctex branch).

>> Curiously, is there a BCP on maintaining a package in a separate
>> repository /and/ keeping its history mirrored in the GNU ELPA one?

You can host a mirror elsewhere if you want.  But the elpa repository is
not read-only, so you'll need to pay attention to commits performed
there to keep the two trees in sync.

>> (FWIW, I’d certainly prefer having a repository of my own to
>> keep the history of the MW package alone.)

If you install your package as an "external", then the history is of
course kept separate.

> I offered marmalade's code base for managing the elpa repository.
> It's an upload based system, you just push packages in it.
> The code is GPLed so there's no concerns there.
> Stefan didn't understand what I meant at the time.  Hopefully he does
> now.

Now I understand you suggest we use Marmalade's scripts to manage the
GNU ELPA archive, but I still don't know what that means concretely.

The fact that we have a local storage of the source and VCS history
(with write access so that any Emacs maintainer can install fixes) is an
important design choice.  Would that easily fit into Marmalade's
code base?  How does Marmalade track commits to send them back to the
respective package's maintainer?


        Stefan