Subject: Re: bug#60418: [PATCH] Add :vc keyword to use-package

From: Philip Kaludercic <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 08 Apr 2023 09:06:28 +0000

Felician Nemeth <[email-masked]> writes:

>>>>>   One has to keep in mind that by default you will be checking out the tip
>>>>>   of the default development branch.  [...]
>
>>>> Maybe use-package's package-vc integration should use more sensible
>>>> defaults then?  But if people don't like this feature, I personally
>>>> won't press the issue further.
>>>
>>> I am afraid I don't know what you mean by more sensible?  My central
>>> point is that I wouldn't want to encourage people to download packages
>>> using package-vc by default.
>
> The integration of package-vc with use-package makes a bit easier what's
> already possible.
>
> One possible way to mitigate the problem of running instable code is to
> check out the commit with the latest tag.  (I don't know how feasible is
> to implement this.)  

package-vc can check out the latest revision that bumped the version tag
(which is what {Non,}GNU ELPA uses to create new versions of a package),
you just need to call `package-vc-install' with `:last-release' as REV.
So the technical means are there.

But if this is done, the question what advantage this has over just
installing a tarball this has?  You would almost always get the same
code.

>                      Alternatively, use-package cloud refuse a :vc
> keyword if an additional :i-know-this-is-in-development-code keyword was
> not set.

Just to clarify, I am not vetoing anything here.  If the functionality
is added to use-package (which is up to the use-package maintainers to
decide), then I don't think users need to be infantilized with these
kinds of little ceremonies.  All I want to understand is the motivation
behind this feature in the first place.

-- 
Philip Kaludercic