On 30 October 2016 at 23:57, Josiah Schwab <jschwab@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi Reuben,

> It would be great if it were possible to install stable org-mode
> versions from GNU ELPA or MELPA Stable. At present, one has to choose
> between installing bleeding-edge versions simply, or stable versions
> built by hand.
>
> (I am a bit surprised I can’t find anything about this in the mailing
> list archives, so do forgive me if I’ve overlooked previous discussion.)

The version on GNU ELPA (http://elpa.gnu.org/packages/org.html), which
is labeled org-20161024, is org-git-version 8.3.6-7-g4d7d52-elpa.

I believe that indicates that it is the latest version from the stable
maint branch, not a version from the unstable master branch (which is at
8.3.6-1264-g21932c right now).

That's great! However, is a cut of the release branch as good as an actual release?

Thought experiment: if it is good enough, surely the web site should

point users to this installation method for the stable version? I can't imagine there are many users who would prefer to compile from source rather than just use package-install!

Also, the version should be the git tag (so that the version number is clearly visible), rather than the current "YYYYMMDD" format, which looks like a development snapshot.

If the org-mode maintainers do not consider these release branch snapshots to be as good as actual releases, then I would repeat my request for stable releases to be available on GNU ELPA or MELPA Stable.

http://rrt.sc3d.org