GnuTLS for W32 (was: gnutls for win32)

[Ted Zlatanov]

On Sun, 01 Jan 2012 23:40:00 +0200 Eli Zaretskii <address@hidden> wrote: 

>> From: Ted Zlatanov <address@hidden>
>> Date: Sun, 01 Jan 2012 16:17:54 -0500
>> 
EZ> I think downloading a single zip archive and unzipping it is much
EZ> easier than adding GnuTLS to Emacs.
>> 
>> For every Emacs user?

EZ> Only those who need it.  I'm not sure what fraction would that be, but
EZ> if it's not very large, including GnuTLS in the binary package would
EZ> unnecessarily punish too many people, by letting them download a
EZ> significantly larger file.

>> Can we include it in the binaries Christoph is putting out, even if
>> it's not built with Emacs itself?

EZ> We could, but see above.  We currently don't even include libxpm,
EZ> although it's much, much smaller.

On Sun, 1 Jan 2012 22:28:58 +0100 Juanma Barranquero <address@hidden> wrote: 

JB> Not every Emacs user, and certainly not every Windows Emacs user,
JB> needs GnuTLS. We also don't include (most) image libraries.

I think nowadays it's a really good idea to include GnuTLS to encrypt
network connections within Emacs.  Unlike image libraries, opening
network connections unencrypted or through tunneling programs can
actually expose secret user data and introduces many unpleasant bugs and
workarounds, *especially* on W32.  I think the download size is tiny
either way by today's standards, but I understand the bloat concern.
Can we download and install the GnuTLS opportunistically, e.g. through
a GNU ELPA package?

I am obviously biased, so I'd like Lars, Stefan, Chong, and any other
concerned developers and users to give their opinion.

Thanks
Ted