Subject: Re: bug#34390: package.el says "Obsolete" when it means "No Longer Used"

From: Brett Gilio <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 08 Feb 2019 11:15:05 -0600

Basil L. Contovounesios writes:

> [email-masked] (Phillip Lord) writes:
>
>> Currently package.el reports packages as "Obsolete" when this is
>> probably not a good choice of word, as it is being interpreted as "no
>> longer in active development".
>>
>> http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/help-gnu-emacs/2019-02/msg00070.html
>>
>> It happens when several versions of a package are installed. Consider
>> this report from M-x package-list-packages
>>
>>   dash               2.12.0        obsolete              A modern list library for Emacs
>>   eglot 1.4 incompat gnu Client for Language Server Protocol (LSP) servers
>>   kiwix              0.4.0         incompat   melpa-s... Kiwix interface and support.
>>
>>
>> Dash is showing here are obsolete because in my installation 2.15.0 is installed.
>>
>>
>>   company            0.9.9         dependency            Modular text completion framework
>>   dash               2.15.0        dependency            A modern list library for Emacs
>>   dash-functional 2.15.0 dependency Collection of useful combinators for Emacs
>> Lisp
>>   direnv             1.4.0         dependency            direnv support for emacs
>>
>>
>> The problem is "obsolete" line appears quite some distance away from
>> other line which shows dash is installed.
>>
>> I would suggested "installed but outdated" perhaps. Or "More Recent
>> Version Installed". Both a bit long.
>
> How about "shadowed" or similar?

The Guix package manager uses a term "superseded." I quite find this
term to be useful and nice.