Re: `make' written in elisp

[David Kastrup <dak@gnu.org>]

Ralf Angeli <angeli@iwi.uni-sb.de> writes:

> * David Kastrup (2005-01-03) writes:
>
>> Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org> writes:
>>
>>> I found that it was extremely clean and appealing code.  If a
>>> package system for Emacs can mean something like this, I am in favor
>>> of it.
> [...]
>> But I do think that we should try to offer some way of installing
>> external Lisp code if one has acquired it as a zip or tar archive in
>> some manner already.
>
> Have you ever looked at source-based package management systems like
> FreeBSD's ports system or NetBSD's pkgsrc?  I think something like
> this would be suited very well for installing Emacs packages.  They
> basically download the source code from the original site, patch it
> if necessary and call commands for building it, e.g. `configure',
> `make' and `make install'.  Thus, an installation like the one of
> AUCTeX would not be a problem.  In fact, FreeBSD's port for AUCTeX
> is ridiculously simple.

The problem is that the only reliable common available infrastructure
we have for all operating systems on which Emacs is able to run, is
Emacs.  And that takes us back to the subject title of this posting.

-- 
David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum