Re: Auto-installing packages?

[Richard Stallman]

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In response to

  > >   > So, for the case of Emacs and ELPA installing over the network vs
  > >   > pre-packaged is, I think, merely technical.

I wrote this:

  > > That is a valid point, in the case of GNU ELPA.
  > >
  > > But would that facility be limited to GNU ELPA?

  > > Or would it also be used with other package archives
  > > that are not part of Emacs?

You responded

  > Emacs already has the ability to do this, but it is up to the user to
  > choose to do this.

That doesn't address the issue I am raising.  It is a tangent.

Emacs has the ability to do any computation at all, if a user programs
it.  The issue here is not what Emacs "has the ability to do", but
what it offers/encourages/suggests/makes convenient.

If we are going to add a convenient facility to load external
packages, it should be for ELPA (which is more or less a part of
Emacs), not for other package archives (which are NOT part of Emacs).

In general, treating all package archives alike is something to avoid.
It is a pitfall.

-- 
Dr Richard Stallman
President, Free Software Foundation (https://gnu.org, https://fsf.org)
Internet Hall-of-Famer (https://internethalloffame.org)