Re: Emacs-Guix released outside from Guix

[Alex Kost]

Ricardo Wurmus (2016-12-16 01:37 +0100) wrote:

> Hi Alex,
>
> Ludovic Courtès <address@hidden> writes:
>
>> Alex Kost <address@hidden> skribis:
>>
>>> Hello, I've been working on Emacs interface outside from the Guix repo
>>> for some time, I mean I'm not going to maintain it inside Guix, sorry :-(
>>>
>>> The main reason, is, well, inconvenience for me: I don't like to bother
>>> people with patches, etc.  I tried to explain it at
>>> <http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/guix-devel/2016-07/msg01091.html>.
>>
>> As someone who’s always trusted you to do the right thing, I’m of course
>> disappointed that we Guix folks didn’t get notified nor consulted before
>> the fact.  I would also have loved a reply to my message back then¹.
>> That’s your choice though.
>>
>> ¹ https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/guix-devel/2016-07/msg01110.html
>
> First of all, let me tell you that I really appreciate your work on
> guix.el!  It’s excellent and makes me feel even more at home in Emacs.
>
> I whole-heartedly second what Ludo wrote and just now and back then:
>
>     It would be a great loss and a technical hindrance if guix.el was moved
>     out of Guix.  I don’t want that to happen, so let me know what the
>     ransom should be!  ;-)

There shouldn't be any ransom!  I just didn't feel I had enough freedom
when I was working on it inside Guix.

> We’d love for guix.el to stay.  You can already modify the code as you
> deem appropriate without having to worry about a veto from any of us.

Sorry, but I have already pushed too much effort making it a separate
project, and it has changed quite a lot comparing to what we have in a
Guix repo.

>> Breakage will occasionally occur as the Guix APIs change, which will
>> make us all a bit sad.  What are your thoughts?
>
> This is the biggie for me.  Having the Emacs interface so closely
> integrated with the rest of Guix ensured that we wouldn’t have to worry
> about breakage.

How could we be ensured?  When a breakage happened in the past, an
according fix had to be done in the guix repo, and it wasn't available
for users until updating 'guix-devel' package.  Now when a breakage will
happen, an according fix will be done in the emacs-guix repo, and it
will be available for MELPA/Quelpa users right away.

> In my opinion this move increases the friction for the
> users that most care about guix.el for the dubious improvement of
> offering a slimmer guix.el to people who … don’t use Guix.

People can use Guix, but they can still prefer to install Emacs packages
via elpa, not via Guix.

>> I’ll let you take care of the actual removal, along with update to the
>> Texinfo cross-references and doc/htmlxref.cnf (assuming the manual will
>> be available on-line.)  I think it would help users to keep
>> cross-references between the two manuals.
>>
>> We need to see what Ricardo thinks and whether or not this can be done
>> before 0.12, which is slated for sometime next week.
>
> Yes, I’ll start preparing for the release (going through the motions) on
> the weekend, so that the actual tagging and uploading can happen on the
> 20th (busy on the 19th) if all goes well.
>
> If you go through with the move please double check that the Guix
> sources are in a state that’s ready for release.  It would be terrible
> to have a botched release.  (Frankly, I’m a little uncomfortable about
> such a big change right before the release, but maybe I’m just being
> nervous about doing the release myself this time…)

I'm going to send "removal" patches after the release.  BTW thank you
for taking care of the release!

-- 
Alex