Re: Propose to add setup-wizard.el to ELPA

[Yuan Fu]

> On Jan 1, 2022, at 6:37 PM, Po Lu <luangruo@yahoo.com> wrote:
> 
> Yuan Fu <casouri@gmail.com> writes:
> 
>> A while ago I wrote a package that helps a new user to configure
>> Emacs: it takes a user through some interactive pages, where changes
>> takes effect immediately; and in the end it generates some code that
>> can be copied to init.el.
>> 
>> Demo for the original package: https://youtu.be/0qMskTAR2aw
>> 
>> I made some improvements to that package and renamed it
>> setup-wizard. Do you think we could add it to ELPA? Maybe the name is
>> too “official”, in that case I can rename it to yuan’s-setup-wizard or
>> something.
> 
> I like the concept in general, but I have a few questions:
> 
> - Whatever is appended to init.el should IMO utilize custom.

I think copy and pasting code would be more straightforward. Using custom, 
whether by defining a custom theme or directly using customize are more 
complicated. Plus I don’t know how to use custom for key bindings.

> 
> - Does it, out of the blue, ask people to download software from the
>   internet?  If so, it should say something to that effect.

Yes. I can add that.

> 
>> I don’t know how useful could it be, since nowadays every body
>> (understandably) starts with some community distribution rather than
>> vanilla Emacs, but surely it is better than not having a wizard.
> 
> That's untrue.

Not sure which part do you mean, but I won’t argue :-)

> 
>>   "🧙: Here are some packages that I always install:\n\n")
>>  ;; Ivy.
> 
> Is it really okay to encourage all users to install a set of packages?
> If they are really so useful, they should be part of Emacs itself.

As I said, if the package seems to be “official”, I can name it 
yuan’s-setup-wizard instead. And I have no intention to come up with an 
official setup wizard and make everyone agree on the provided options. Those 
are my recommendation, not Emacs’. (Maybe I can add some text that make it 
clear that the recommendations are personal.)

I really want to add ivy because personally I can’t use Emacs comfortably 
without a “modern” completion package, be it ivy, helm, selectrum, or whatever.

> Also, I don't think the Emoji are necessary (or desirable): some users
> do not have fonts installed, or terminals available that capable of
> displaying them.

They are automatically replaced by text if Emacs can’t display them.

Yuan