Re: feature/package+vc 04c4c578c7 3/4: Allow for packages to be installed directly from VCS

[Stefan Kangas]

Philip Kaludercic <philipk@posteo.net> writes:

> The value corresponding to :upstream is a list of the form
>
>     (VC-BACKEND REPOSITORY-URL SUBDIRECTORY BRANCH)
>
> I have been wondering if it would be better to use a {a,p}list instead,
> which would be more flexible if changes would become necessary in the
> future.  Perhaps I am even missing something right now?
>
> At the same time I don't mean to burden the ELPA server by increasing
> the size of the file that is regularly queried.  Perhaps REPOSITORY-URL
> could have special values such as `:url' to indicate that the package
> URL is the same as the repository and `:elpa'/`:nongnu' to indicate that
> the default repository is being used.  Or is this just premature
> optimisation?

I think it's important to make the format both extensible and readable,
so I'd probably lean towards an alist or plist.

If the reason not to do that is a concern that the file gets
bigger/slower, I think it would be good to produce some numbers.
Without that, it does feel a bit like premature optimization.