Re: GNU ELPA visibility

[Dmitry Gutov]

Tassilo Horn <address@hidden> writes:

> Jeremiah Dodds <address@hidden> writes:
>
>>> When looking for an Elisp package or feature, most people reach for
>>> their browser before reaching for M-x list-packages.  But packages
>>> distributed via GNU ELPA won't show up because they're not visible to
>>> search engines.
>>
>> I think it's very likely that M-x list-packages will get much more
>> common as time progresses. It's certainly the first thing that I go to
>> nowadays.
>
> Ditto, but the package explanations given there are far from informative
> enough to find the package you need for your task at hand.  I look there
> first, but then google up the packages that sound relevant, and in the
> end that almost always leads to emacswiki.
>
> It would be good if every package would at least complement Version and
> Summary with a longer description, a link to its homepage (or emacswiki
> page if it has no homepage), and the date when it was updated the last
> time.

You may find that, for single-file packages, even if they provide an
extended "Commentary" section, it will not show up in the
"list-packages" interface. At least when distributed over MELPA or
Marmalade.

I think it's fixed in Daniel Haxney's package.el fork, though.

Showing a link to the homepage (taken from the "URL" header) would be a
welcome addition to the interface, too.

--Dmitry