Subject: bug#76978: [PATCH] package.el: Add built-in version check and loaded package marking

From: david <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 18 Mar 2025 19:29:13 -0400

Stefan Monnier <[email-masked]> writes:

>> I also changed "activated" to "loaded", as the latter is more accurate
>> for marking packages in the "Other versions" section.
>
> Hmm... the two terms do not mean the same thing.  "Loaded" refers to the
> package's `.el` files having been `load`ed, whereas "activated" means
> that the package's directory has been added to `load-path` and its
> `<PKG>-autoloads.el` file has been loaded.
>
> The variable `package-activated-list` keeps track, as the name suggests,
> of packages that have been activated, not loaded.
>
  Should we mark packages in "Other versions" as "activated" or "loaded"
  (like the GNU ELPA package Marginalia, which shows "Loaded" when
  calling `locate-library`)? Currently, "Other versions" redundantly
  includes the described package. I aim to improve this by indicating if
  the package is in `load-path`, helping users identify active or loaded
  packages. What do you recommend?
  >
> Also, I had questions in my previous review and I haven't seen any
> answer to them (most importantly about copyright paperwork).
>
Yes, I have signed the copyright paperwork. I will carefully review your
suggestions and prepare an updated patch addressing them. Thank you for
your thorough feedback and for keeping an eye on the patch.