Re: Emacs Survey 2022 - design

[Stefan Monnier]

>> `use-package` looks out of place, since I don't think it offers any
>> facilities to download/install/update/uninstall packages.
> Really?  (use-package foobar :ensure t) will download and install the
> foobar package.  If it does that itself or tells package.el to do it
> doesn't really matter.

AFAIK it uses package.el for that, tho IIUC `straight.el` hooks into it
so that it installs via `straight.el` for those who use that.

In both cases, `use-package` delegates the job to an actual
package manager rather than being a package manager itself.

> FWIW, I'd select use-package in that question + package.el (for
> deletion) and auto-package-update (missing!) for updates without having
> to manually go through the *Packages* buffer.

Then maybe we should distinguish between the "backend" (package.el here)
and the UI layer on top of it (use-package, list-packages,
auto-package-update, ...)?


        Stefan