Re: Website revamp?

[Maxim Nikulin]

05.08.2020 04:43, Bo Grimes wrote:
> best advice I found [1], and I did so by backing up my entire emacs.d 
> and then deleting all .elc files. This worked. I've no understanding of 
> the underlying technicalities, and I'm pretty sure I had never heard of 
> byte-compiled files (except in the most general sense unrelated to 
> Emacs).
>
> [2] The idea that someone would use org-mode and not get "hooked" is 
> paradoxically unimaginable.

I mean that someone who never heard of emacs may notice e.g. a blog post 
related to org-mode. My opinion that =apt install emacs= even without 
=apt install elpa-org= is more than enough to try how org-mode works. 
=M-x package-install= is unnecessary magic in such case. Decision to 
continue to use traditional note taking application is normal in such 
circumstances and the person is not org-mode user yet. Next mention of 
org-mode still may give better results.

Avoiding =M-x package-install= I am trying to shorten path to really 
first attempt to use org-mode.

I have not heard of problems with .elc files before. Frankly speaking, I 
am surprised that they exist at all. I would expect comparison of source 
file hash with the value saved in compiled file.

Anyway I would expect more problems from previous attempts to install 
packages from withing of emacs than from system-wide packages. However I 
have just noticed that emacs-common contains ready .elc files, but 
elpa-org calls compiler during installation.

I may be wrong but using latest stable version could lead to another 
kind of frustrating problems. Projects evolve with different pace, so 
accidentally org update could break another package relying on removed 
function or variable. I do not know what is more probable. Packages from 
system repositories may have more known bugs but still be more predictable.

I suppose, it is up to a particular user to choose if he sticks to 
system repositories or to latest upstream releases. Each option has its 
weak and strong sides.

As to installation recommendations I would consider something like:

Emacs is a very flexible application and the same is true for org-mode. 
Sometimes it is even hard to decide what set of default settings is 
better. It gives you great power but require additional responsibility. 
Almost certainly you will try to tune emacs and org-mode accordingly to 
your preferences. Please, keep your emacs configuration in a version 
control system, e.g. git and document the purpose of each change in 
commit messages. It would help to review recent changes and revert them 
if you noticed some problems. Definitely in addition you could use notes 
in an org file to log your activity related to improving emacs 
experience to have overview of accepted and rejected options, packages, etc.

However I am in doubt if git could be a rescue in the case of issues 
with .elc files.

Personally I prefer clearly separated roles of installing software and 
using it, otherwise much more security issues arise.