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

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: João Távora <joaotavora@gmail.com>
> Date: Wed, 19 Apr 2023 14:18:21 +0100
> Cc: jporterbugs@gmail.com, dmitry@gutov.dev, emacs-devel@gnu.org
> 
> > > 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?

Yes.

> 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.

In the "list-packages" display, instead of

  eglot       1.14    available  gnu   The Emacs Client for LSP servers

I envisioned seeing something like

  eglot       2.01    alpha      gnu   The Emacs Client for LSP servers
  eglot       1.20    current    gnu   The Emacs Client for LSP servers
  eglot       1.15    stable     gnu   The Emacs Client for LSP servers
  eglot       1.14    previous   gnu   The Emacs Client for LSP servers
  eglot       1.12    built-in   gnu   The Emacs Client for LSP servers

where the 3rd column is the "stability gradation" I had in mind.

I also envisioned some user option, say, package-preferred-stabilty,
which users could set to a value such as 'stable', and then package.el
will only automatically update a package to a newer version when the
new version satisfies the stability criteria per the value of that
option.

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

If the above doesn't explain this, I don't think I understand the
question.  What do you mean by "do with that in Emacs"?