Re: Org Mode version to be bundled with Emacs 25?

[Robert Weiner]

On Mon, Jul 18, 2016 at 1:19 PM, Stefan Monnier <address@hidden> wrote:

> But there is something missing in Emacs presently that would make this a
> much more attractive option to package developers who want the broadest
> base of users.  There needs to be a simple, single function call to require
> a package which would automatically download, build, install and activate
> it (a flag could control whether or not this actually happened
> automatically or if the user were prompted to confirm, etc).

Doesn't package-install do that?

​Mostly.  I don't think it handles updates.  Maybe another function package-require could handle this need (essentially requiring remote libraries rather than just local ones).

Of course, I smell some connection to the fact that Emacs developers
(including myself) have been opposed to making Emacs open up network
connections (e.g. at startup) without explicit request from the user.

​There should be an enable- flag with a default of nil to allow for this.

> The main issue I see right now is that packages are installed on a per-user
> basis rather than a per-Emacs site basis, so you would get a lot more code
> instance duplication and version management issues than you would have with
> a package integrated into Emacs core.

ELPA packages can be installed site-wide just fine.  There's no obvious
direct support to do that, admittedly, but it's just a small matter of
designing the UI (and default layout) and coding it.  I had such support
in install.el and it's really not hard to add.  And at least under
Debian you can install various ELPA packages site-wide via Debian's
package manager.

​This would be good.

​

Bob