Package system improvements!?

[Michael Sperber]

steven Mitchell <smitchel at bnin.net> writes:

> This is a little off the "Package system improvements" thread, but still 
> about paths to lisp code.
>
> In Windows, XEmacs is installed under Program Files.
> That is not accessible over a network, because Windows doesn't want you 
> to share your Program files over your own network.  That complicates 
> things when you want to update a lisp file to several computers over 
> your network.  So I made a directory which I could share over the 
> network, and made a directory in Slackware to match, so I can update 
> from either direction.
>
> Where should user-written lisp code be placed?
>
> Is that what "site-packages" is for?
> Does site refer to all users on a single system?

Yes.

> Or does site refer to a site like a whole local network? Where an 
> administrator would install packages and everybody use them?

You could also do that.  I'm not sure what "system" means: site-packages
is supposed to be shared among all users of a single installation of
XEmacs.  The user-specific stuff can go into one of the package
hierarchies under ~/.xemacs

> Getting back closer to topic: Stephen, I don't have the historical 
> perspective that you and others do.  I am trying to understand the cases 
> that users would have previously installed packages that are installed 
> in other places.  What kind of packages would they have installed in 
> other places?

Stuff like org-mode, which does not have a proper XEmacs package version
yet.

> It this for people with multiple versions of XEmacs installed?  To avoid 
> having a second copy of each package on the hard drive?   

Not specifically "site-packages": The entire packages can be shared.

> Any idea how many users actually have packages installed in different 
> places?
> (other than me, when I installed them in the wrong place (grin))

More than you would think.  We started out with far less options, and
expanded as people with different installs complained.

-- 
Cheers =8-} Mike
Friede, Völkerverständigung und überhaupt blabla