Re: [Geiser-users] Easier way to ELPA-ize Geiser

[Daniel Hackney]

(I'm not on the geiser-users list, so please CC me on future messages)

> On Fri, Sep 28 2012, Daniel Hackney wrote:
>
> > I wanted to update to version 0.2.1 and figured I'd solve the issue of
> > integrating with package.el once and for all. I made a script to change
> > Geiser into an ELPA package in a fully-automated way. The script is
> > here: https://gist.github.com/3798214 and must be run from within the
> > untarred directory of "geiser-0.2.1.tar.gz"
>
> Excellent!  Grant Rettke has also created a package recently
> (http://www.wisdomandwonder.com/article/6408/geiser-0-2-1-elpa-package),
> and i was thinking about integrating the packaging process into Geiser's
> build system one of these days.

Cool! You know you're on the right track when someone else is trying to
solve the same problem :)

> If you don't mind my stealing it,

Of course not! I updated the gist and added a GPLv3 header.

> rule and with some simplifications when i can move things to Geiser's
> side (like autoload cookies), will make possible to just do 'make
> elpa' in a source checkout to build the ELPA package.

Adding autoload cookies would simplify things a bunch. Most of the Elisp
code in the script is adding autoload cookies and removing unneeded
settings of `geiser-elisp-dir' and `geiser-scheme-dir'.

With some structural modifications, you could make it so that no make
script needs to be run at all. It would entail putting all of the elisp
and info files in the root directory, but not much aside from that.

> I can then set up an ELPA repo in Geiser's download area, and also
> upload it to Marmalade (if we can solve the problems Grant and I
> encountered with the latter these days) on every new release.

That would certainly be the easiest way to do things. Users could then
install geiser without having to think about it at all :)

> P.S: BTW, Grant and i added a 'dir' file to make Geiser's info file
> visible in Emacs out of the box: does it work for you that way without
> that file? (i.e., does Geiser's manual appear in the info top level
> index?)

The way my script did things resulted in Geiser's info page being
visible in the info directory. I think all that is needed is to have a
"dir" file at the root and the associated "*.info" files next to it.

P.S.: I saw that you made a change just now, adding autoload cookies to
geiser.el. Adding autoload cookies to `autoload' calls is pretty
redundant; better just put the cookies before the actual function and
variable definitions. The only reason I did it like that in my script
was for simplicity. If you're actually modifying the source, you should
definitely put the cookies above the appropriate `defun' and/or
`defvar'.