Re: feature/package+vc 04c4c578c7 3/4: Allow for packages to be installed directly from VCS

[Philip Kaludercic]

Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org> writes:

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> [[[ whether defending the US Constitution against all enemies,     ]]]
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>
>   > >After that, you may wish to load the code of that package, or arrange
>   > >for it to be loaded on other occasions in the future, or you may not.
>   > >We should provide easy ways to do those things if you want to, but we
>   > >shouldn't impose those things on you by default just because you
>   > >asked to see those sources in a repo.
>   > >
>
>   > In that case we are simply talking about different things.
>
> We're talking about the same thing, but looking at it from two
> different angles.

For certain values of "same thing" ^^

> You want to do two things together: to check out source from the
> upstrean repo, and set up to use that version by default in Emacs.
> Now you've added a command to check it out and not do anything else.

I want to offer the ability to do two things together.  So you can now
either

        M-x package-vc-install foo

and have everything taken care of, or

        M-x package-vc-checkout foo path/to/some/directory
        M-x package-vc-link-directory path/to/some/directory

to do the same using two separate steps.

> I see them as conceptually separate.  I think we should have a command
> to check out source from the upstrean repo and no more.  And then
> a command to activate that version for use.

And that is provided.

> It's not a crucial difference.  Either way, the user can check it out
> with or without activation.

Right.

> If we include checking out the ELPA repo, then we have four
> possibilities: check out the ELPA repo, check it out and activate it,
> check out the upstream repo, and check it out and activate it.
>
> Then there is an advantage in separating checkout and activation.
> Then we need only two checkout commands (the upstream repo and the
> ELPA repo), and one activate command that can activate either repo.
>
> But it's not a problem if that has to be done with four commands.

As you can see above, I've solved it with a three commands, where
`package-vc-install' and `package-vc-checkout' both take a prefix
argument if you want to checkout the revision of the latest release.