Re: distribution of AUCTeX and built-in TeX/LaTeX modes

[Tassilo Horn]

Jeremy Bryant <jb@jeremybryant.net> writes:

> Indeed, I agree it is very convenient to upgrade auctex through ELPA.
>
> There are however at least 2 scenarios where there are benefits to
> having auctex, a functional albeit perhaps not the most recent
> version, in a distribution of Emacs.
>
> 1.  New LaTeX users can discover and try auctex straightaway.  If they
> want to upgrade, they also can.  (e.g. case of org-mode)
>
> 2.  Some sites don't allow downloading of packages (for policy or
> security reasons), so all users have access to is whatever is included
> in their Emacs distribution (and indeed their system distro).
> (e.g. some corporate environments.)

That's certainly true.  But there are also people who like the simple
(La)TeX modes which ship with Emacs better than AUCTeX.  So there would
have to be some feature which would allow users to try out both and then
decide which one to stick to.  (Of course, you can already do that but I
mean something that interactively guides you when finding a tex file for
the first time...)

Bye,
Tassilo