

Phil Hagelberg on Emacs new package manager. - pdelgallego
http://technomancy.us/144

======
phuff
package.el is slick stuff. Those guys convinced me to make some of my packages
ELPA-compatible when it was first starting out. It's super easy to use as a
user, super easy to use as a developer, and makes it really nice to install
and use dependencies for extensions.

It's totally awesome that it's in the main codebase now.

------
wfarr
Now we just need to make a tool for automating the release process. I'm
imagining a minor-mode that integrates with vc to take a given
tag/branch/what-have-you and upload it to Marmalade.

</dream>

~~~
nex3
I'm working on one. I'll upload it once I have the chance to finish it up.

------
GrooveStomp
The idea is sound and it seemed slick when I tried to use it. Unfortunately, I
got several errors when trying to install packages like Slime, Paredit and
Clojure-mode. I've since manually setup those packages for myself and they
work fine, so I wonder what the problem was that I encountered.

~~~
spacemanaki
I had an enormous amount of trouble setting that stuff up, partly because I
also wanted to use Common Lisp. I also was unable to uninstall any package.

Everything about package.el and ELPA has always given me the feeling that it's
a bit rough. My hope is that Emacs 24 will straighten it all out.

------
naner
This requires a bit more work but is also more flexible:

<https://github.com/dimitri/el-get>

It helps you manage emacs packages and elisp that are not packaged.

------
albemuth
After hours customizing vim with pathogen and git submodules and recompiling a
bunch of timed I really wish vim had something like this

------
prodigal_erik
Last time I looked at this, they punted on interoperability with the system
package manager. Are they likely to ever care about this, or is it just for
people who aren't appalled at the thought of polluting individual machines
with random libraries whose interdependencies are invisible in the dpkg or rpm
database?

~~~
bkudria
This sort of "integration" is enormously difficult. In fact, it's even ill-
defined.

I challenge you to design a useful system that works, but is general enough to
integrate both dpkg and rpm.

~~~
jwhitlark
Puppet. I'm increasingly convinced that a multilevel system is required to
solve this type of problem.

~~~
regularfry
I agree. I think we need a protocol which is both package manager (dpkg, rpm)
and environment (emacs, python, ruby) agnostic, with plugins to handle the
specific cases.

I think the starting point should be an RVM/perlbrew-alike for each
environment; that'll keep the environment developers and those who like to be
on the bleeding-edge happy. Then plugins to handle {gem,elpa,pip,...} ->
(sufficiently general intermediate format) -> {deb,rpm,msi,...}, and we're
done.

Seemples.

