Re: Are there an elisp package manager like apt-get or cpan?

[Robert D. Crawford]

ken <gebser@speakeasy.net> writes:

> I'll give a pitch for RPM.  There's been many a time when I've wanted to
> upgrade emacs or elisp, but know that if I do, forever after I'll no
> longer be able to use RPM for upgrades and I'll have to always upgrade
> emacs and elisp manually.  So forget about enterprise environments.

Not all of us fall into those categories.  I use debian, so rpm is a bad
solution, in this case anyway.  I would also stay away from apt in this
case for the same reasons.  Also, I am not, nor would I imagine are most
users on this list, in an enterprise environment.  

Furthermore, unless you are living on the bleeding edge of emacs
development, it does not change that often.  It seems to me that most
people would be able to live with an emacs installation for several
years without the need to upgrade.

While we are dreaming here, why don't we come up with a way to do a
complete installation from this packaging system... emacs and all.  Make
it so that it can sniff out the type of distro one uses and make the
adjustments to the package database so that the system knows that there
is a version of emacs/gnus/add-on-mode etc. installed.

I have to say that if someone goes ahead with this, it should work like
apt in that not only does it get the package and install it, it also
grabs whatever dependencies are needed.

> Standards aren't much use if there's a bazillion of them and they're all
> incompatible with one another.  So why bother with an app that will see
> limited use and, more than likely, will be replaced in a few years by
> something far more practical?

Living by this logic, we would never get anything done as there is
always something newer and better coming along.

rdc

-- 
Robert D. Crawford                                      rdc1x@comcast.net

QOTD:
        I opened Pandora's box, let the cat out of the bag and put the
        ball in their court.
                -- Hon. J. Hacker (The Ministry of Administrative Affairs)