bug#68660: 29.2; ELPA: Wrong type argument w. multiple maintainers in package-menu-mode

[J.P.]

Philip Kaludercic <philipk@posteo.net> writes:

> "J.P." <jp@neverwas.me> writes:
>
>> Stefan has suggested renaming the `:maintainer' item in the `extras'
>> slot of `package-desc' objects to `:maintainers' (plural). IIUC, this
>> would have the effect of solving the issue by omitting the "Maintainer:"
>> line item in *Help* buffers produced by `package-menu-describe-package'
>> and friends for all packages on all Emacs versions below 30.1. 
>
> That also seems to be the best idea to me as well.

Nice. And to be clear, by 'omitting the "Maintainer:" line', I meant
only WRT the `describe-package' results in Emacs and (hopefully) not the
web pages at http://elpa.gnu.org/packages/foo.html, etc.

>
>>                                                                Full
>> remediation would, I think, also require that foo-pkg.el files and
>> /archive-contents data hosted on elpa.gnu.org reflect the newer format.
>
> I am not familiar with ERC's infrastructure, shouldn't this happen
> automatically?

Yes, automatically. But I think elpa-admin would still need a shim, at
least until such time as the Emacs running on the production instance is
upgraded to 30.1 (or 29.3, if such a thing ever materializes). Not sure
if it's Stefan or the GNU infra people who control this.

>
>> To help move this process along, Stefan has called for patches, but I
>> unfortunately am unable to reciprocate because I lack the wherewithal.
>> Hoping you're able to assist in this regard either directly, with code,
>> or by pointing out specific areas in the Emacs code base (and possibly
>> elpa-admin's as well) that would need addressing.
>
> I could help, but I don't understand what is going on well enough to
> produce any concrete patches.

Thanks. I myself don't understand the whole picture either, only what's
readily apparent from observed behavior. I mean, I guess I can give it a
shot, but I'll mostly be flying blind.

>
>> TIA,
>> J.P.
>>
>> [1]
>> https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-gnu-emacs/2024-01/msg01575.html