BAD: Handling of package-index by package release and install system

Hello All, Hello Steve, many of you must be experiencing the same problems. I had long wanted to write about the breakage I see. Some Facts: The package-index file contains (package-get-update-base-entry (quote ...)) forms. The file is not meant to be hand-edited: ;; Package Index file -- Do not edit manually. ;;;＠＠＠ (package-get-update-base-entry (quote ... Building a package adds a (package-get-update-base-entry (quote ...)) form at the beginning of the package-index file in the staging area. The Problem: When a package-index file is read, the last (package-get-update-base-entry (quote ...)) form for a certain package in that file supercedes earlier ones. This means that the Package Release Engineer has to fiddle with the package-index file or remove the package-index file and rebuild all packages from scratch. Two Questions: 1. Is it a valuable feature for the package-index file to contain multiple instances of the same package to provide a building history of packages? We don't seem to have the interfaces to make use of this feature today. 2. Shouldn't the latest addition to the package-index file supercede older definitions? Has anybody been working on these problems already? Any suggestions what should be done? I think item 2 really needs fixing. Best regards, Adrian -- Adrian Aichner mailto:adrian＠xemacs.org http://www.xemacs.org/