Re: What is GNU ELPA?

[Yoni Rabkin]

Dmitry Gutov <address@hidden> writes:

> On 17.05.2020 17:49, Yoni Rabkin wrote:
>> In case it is an interesting data point, ELPA may be invisible and
>> un-discoverable to many Emacs users. Here is why I think this may be the
>> case:
>> I've been using Emacs for decades, and I use it every day for my
>> living
>> (read: Emacs is crucial to me and my family). I have a few packages
>> installed in an ~/elisp/  directory and I load those manually via my
>> ~/.emacs.
>> Over all of these years I have never had Emacs ask, offer, or
>> otherwise
>> point out ELPA. The only reason I know it even exists is because as a
>> GNU maintainer of some emacs extensions, people sometimes asked my why
>> those extensions are not in ELPA. At that point, I needed to try and
>> figure out what ELPA even was (not to mention what MELPA was, and what
>> the difference is between them.)
>
> I think that ties in to my suggestion that we should promote ELPA
> more, no less.
>
> Probably feature it in the Getting Started guide. Maybe even on the
> startup screen.
>
> The menu item "Manage Emacs Packages" could also use a more prominent
> position.
>
>> Please don't take this as criticism of ELPA or the efforts of the
>   people who work on it, as it is not intended to be one. Instead, I 
> wanted to share my real-world use of Emacs in relation to ELPA, in
> case it would be a valuable data-point for the people who are
> considering the question in the subject of the thread: "What is GNU
> ELPA?"
>
> In your opinion, what would have been the best option to raise
> awareness of it?

It's a bootstrapping problem, since I don't use ELPA and my Emacs is
already tuned to my needs. I guess that if I had a problem with Emacs,
and I did a web search for it, then it would be useful if the first few
results would be links to something that points at ELPA.

I also wouldn't mind a weekly or monthly mailing list posting somewhere
that presents a few choice packages on ELPA, explaining why its good and
how people are using it to be effective. If I read about something
really neat there, I might be tempted to go to ELPA to get it.

-- 
   "Cut your own wood and it will warm you twice"