Re: package and testing rant (was Re: package.el, auto-installation, and auto-removal)

[Stefan Monnier]

> Sacrificing user convenience of installing a package to make our lives
> as developers easier sounds backwards to me.  So, from my POV, the
> ideal should be "no build stage", and the only files to be generated
> during the installation should be those that Emacs can do itself, as
> part of the fetching and installation.

There are 2 build stages: one when turning an elpa.git directory and
turning it into a tarball (done by elpa.gnu.org, not by users) and one
done by Emacs on the user's machine to compile the .el and generate
the autoloads.

So, the build normally done on the user's machine currently doesn't
require any external tools, and we aim to keep it this way
whenever possible.


        Stefan