Re: [ELPA] New package c-intro-and-ref -- was Re: Proposal: Include C Manual from RMS in Emacs git, and/or release

[Philip Kaludercic]

Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> writes:

>>> Are we providing packages that include only Info manuals, which
>>> document stuff that is not specific to Emacs?  Because I don't see how
>>> it would be a good idea to have this as an ELPA package.
>
> There is a precedent in the form of the [Ada reference
> manual](http://elpa.gnu.org/packages/ada-ref-man.html).
> FWIW, I'm not completely comfortable with this precedent.

MELPA also has a package distributing the TeXinfo version of SICP:
https://github.com/webframp/sicp-info.

> Sadly Info is rarely used outside of Emacs FAICT, so there is a clear
> tendency to consider Info manual as "manuals for use within Emacs".
>
>> It would also make sense to make the Emacs manuals available for easy
>> download, as distributions like Debian do not include these by default.
>> Whether we distribute these by piggy-backing on package.el or have a
>> separate installer that could be distributed on ELPA is a different
>> matter, but it would be useful to have an index of already existing
>> manuals that would be interesting regardless of their relation to Emacs.
>
> A dedicated ELisp package that can download manuals and install them in
> Info format (which may require converting from another format) would be
> nice (or more generally in any format that Emacs can use, which may also
> include HTML, nowadays, tho we still need extra work to make HTML
> manuals as well integrated as Info manuals).

I'd gladly implement the package, but right now the main manuals I know
of are the ones listed here: https://www.gnu.org/manual/.  Looking at
the page, it turns out to be more than I had assumed, so perhaps it is
a useful place to start from.

>
>         Stefan