Re: Stability of core packages (was: Not easy at all to upgrade :core packages like Eglot)

[João Távora]

On Wed, Apr 19, 2023 at 1:55 PM Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> wrote:
>
> > From: João Távora <joaotavora@gmail.com>
> > Date: Wed, 19 Apr 2023 09:50:12 +0100
> > Cc: Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org>, Dmitry Gutov <dmitry@gutov.dev>,
> >  emacs-devel@gnu.org
> >
> > On Tue, Apr 18, 2023 at 7:57 PM Jim Porter <jporterbugs@gmail.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > * Stable: the version of a package included in the latest Emacs tarball
> > > * Latest: the latest version on GNU ELPA (etc)
> > > * Devel: the latest version on GNU-devel ELPA (etc)
> > >
> > > You could possibly add:
> > >
> > > * Core(?): the version of a package included in the tarball of the
> > > user's *current* Emacs installation
> >
> > These are interesting levels, but I was under the impression
> > that the goal is to partition the set of :core packages according
> > to some kind of gradation, what Eli called "stability gradation".
> > The set can be found in the variable package--builtins.
>
> No you've misunderstood what I mean by "stability gradation".  It has
> nothing to do with the value of package--builtins, even when that is
> non-nil.

OK, but you wrote:

  IOW, shouldn't packages have some "stability gradation" that is
  visible when users look at the list of packages via package.el?

By "have some" I interpreted that you wanted to map a given
characteristic to each package.   And by "packages" I interpreted
that you meant the packages that the Emacs project has control
over.  And those packages are, by definition, the ":core" or
"builtin" packages (although if the Emacs project is taken to
include ELPA .git, it will also include all the packages there).

If I've misunderstood, I think you could give examples of
real or made up packages and assign a "stability gradation" to
them and define what that gradation means.

Then explain what you want to do with that stability gradation
in Emacs (if anything, perhaps you just want to show it).

João