Re: [External] : [ELPA] Package cleanup

[Stefan Monnier]

> I would like to assume that ELPA is a somewhat curated
> collection of packages.  Perhaps not as rigorously tested
> and maintained as Emacs itself, but more so than some
> package on github that has not seen an update in 5 years.

That's not really the case, no :-(
I do make sure the packages compile, and try occasionally to clean up
the worst warnings, and when I make changes in Emacs I try to keep an
eye on GNU ELPA packages to update them correspondingly, but I think I'm
an exception in this regard.

> If the only virtue of being on ELPA is that I can install via
> package.el then that seems like rather thin gruel.

The other is that there's a plan to include some of those packages into
the standard Emacs tarball.

> Perhaps the bar for admission to ELPA is too low.

The main bar is for the package to be useful, harmless, and to have
copyright.  I don't see a strong reason to make it much higher.

> Could we require automated tests that can be run regularly to confirm
> package health?

That would be great.  But before requiring them, we need to setup a way
to run the already existing tests.  Any help in this regard would be
most welcome.


        Stefan