Org merging [was Re: next pretest]

[Glenn Morris <rgm@gnu.org>]

Bastien wrote:

> Well, it's a matter of timing. 

Org already gets special treatment. I don't see what else can be done.

>  Fixing bugs in the stable Org branch seems preferrable than merging
> Org with Emacs, because I suspect the stable Org branch has more
> testers than emacs-24.

I suggest that after this release we stop keeping Org in the Emacs
*repository*. Motivation:

1) It's usually months out-of-date.
2) Merging has been a frequent problem, wastes resources, is not a
priority for you, and no-one else seems interested in doing it.
3) As you say, probably it has relatively few users anyway. Anyone
capable of getting Emacs from VCS can get Org from elpa or wherever;
I suspect most who want to use it do.
4) Almost no-one changes Org in the Emacs repo.
5) Org bugs reported to bug-gnu-emacs get little attention. I don't
think I ever see any of the other Org people apart from you comment on
bug-gnu-emacs reports. The reports usually refer to versions of Org not
even in Emacs.
6) I know you have frequent problems with people wanting to use a
different Org version than the one in Emacs.
7) It doesn't get any benefit from Emacs pretests, owing to point 1.

We can still include it future release *tarballs*, if you like, using a
mechanism to be determined before the next release. But keeping it in
the *repository* seems pointless.