Re: GNU ELPA package discoverability

[Stefan Kangas]

Bastien <bzg@gnu.org> writes:

> Sorry, I must be missing something here, but how can it be undesirable
> to advertize the fact that users can customize Emacs in a way that let
> them install packages from non-official sources?

I'm not against advertising it, which we do in several places already.
It is only a question of how prominently we advertise it.

I would expect that once we can get "Non-GNU ELPA" going and configured
by default, there is less need to advertise this so prominently.
Perhaps the most important and/or popular packages will already be
installable by default, which means that this customization will take
place more infrequently.

My proposal is therefore simply to wait with adding the menu entry until
we know more about the way forward for "Non-GNU ELPA", its relation to
MELPA and so on.  There is ample time before Emacs 28.1 is released to
consider it again.  But this is just my personal opinion, of course.

Another thing, which I failed to bring up in my previous email.  If I
understand correctly, you propose to put "List available packages" after
"Customize package sources".  This seems to suggest that the package
system is not usable until after you customize it.  Am I missing
something here?  If not, should we perhaps change that order?

Best regards,
Stefan Kangas