Re: How to install prerelease package versions (particularly Emacs)

[Jorge]

March 27, 2018 6:51 AM, address@hidden wrote:
> Pierre Neidhardt <address@hidden> skribis:
> 
>> Considering the importance of Emacs in this community, I think it would
>> make sense to provide a cutting-edge version.
> 
> Do you mean a snapshot of the ‘master’ branch?
> 
> We don’t do that usually, and I would instead suggest using
> ‘--with-source’ for people who would like that.
> 
> What do people think?
I am sorry for having taken this long to reply.  I (the original poster) was
thinking not of ‘master’ branch snapshots.  GNU Emacs has already branched the
upcoming Emacs 26, and the ‘master’ branch has been opened for the development
of what will be Emacs 27.  I was thinking of the latest official pretest version
of the almost-released branch (currently Emacs 26.0.91).  In my experience so
far, these pretest versions are reliable enough for daily usage.

Providing Emacs pretest versions would enable a larger audience to test them,
thus helping the GNU project.  It would also enable more people to
get Emacs from Guix; I need Emacs 26 for its better proxy support (so I can
install ELPA packages from my work desktop) and I really like its many other
features, so if Guix only has 25.3, I will continue to compile 26.0.9x manually
(and miss the Guix features).

I think it would be clearly beneficial to package 26.0.9x, unless Guix lacks the
manpower.  I unfortunately don't think I'll be able to help much, beyond testing
and filing bug reports.

Regards

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