At 07:07 PM 7/30/2001 +0200, you wrote: >"Paul Kinnucan" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: >> People suggest this from time-to-time. In fact, this is the approach I took >> with the XML Authoring Environment (XAE) for Emacs. The XAE is supplied as a >> single Java/Lisp downloadable with all required packages that works out of >> the box. Surprisingly, a lot of Emacs users don't like this approach. This >> is because they already have some of the required packages installed. They >> think it's wasteful and potentiially disruptive that the XAE installs >> another copy and perhaps even a newer or older version of a package on their >> system. If you can suggest a way of packaging the JDE that avoids this >> problem, please let me know. > >I think that the solution could be to distribute two versions of JDE (one >will all packages and one without). > >> Also keep in mind that providing multiple >> packaging schemes, each geared to individual preferences, may be the ideal >> solution, but it costs time. If somebody wants to take on the burden of >> repackaging the JDE to meet some packaging preference and doing this for >> each release, I'd be perfectly happy to post the result on the JDE website. > >May be the idea is quite naive, but wouldn't it be possible to drop all >the .el and .elc files in the lisp/ directory of JDE and tar the JDE >directory ? Yes, but location is not the issue. The point is that many people PREFER to keep the required packages separate to simplify upgrading and many already have copies of some or all the required packages on their system. By mixing all the packages indiscriminately in one directory, your suggestion makes it difficult to upgrade when new versions of the require packages are introduced. Further it can result in setup errors, e.g., the wrong version of semantic gets loaded because an existing, obsolete version already exists on the user's system and is being loaded ahead of the one shipped with the JDE. These sorts of load-path shadowing problems are precisely the kinds likely to bedevil inexperienced Emacs users. >I have tested this solution (with JDE 2.2.5 version) and >everything seems to work. This is a metter of a script... I can write >the script and you launch it on your installation :o) > Personally I prefer to download and keep the packages separate as this makes upgrading an individual package easier (at least for me). So I am not motivated to spend the time that your suggestion would require (i.e., creating and posting two versions). Perhaps you can pursuade someone else to create a package along the lines you suggest and provide the necessary installation instructions. If so, I'd be glad to include it on the JDE web page. This would have to be done for each release. Also don't forget, you have to provide a separate version for XEmacs as the Emacs and XEmacs .elc files are potentially incompatible. Also, you probably should provide zip and tar.gz versions of each. - Paul
