Sam Steingold writes: Sam> incidentally, why `lib'? libs are platform dependent, while emacs Sam> byte-compiled files are not, so they should be installed under `share', Sam> right? Right. This package stuff is very new, and still subject to many improvements/modifications. I've already raised the lib issue a while ago (along with some other things) and it's likely to change in a near future.[1] I suggest you throw an eye to the xemacs-beta mailing list archive one or two months ago if you're interested. Whether you can or can't run XEmacs with packages not installed, I'm not sure (I think not but Mickael could tell you more on this). However, lemme just remind you that the tarballs (that you can install where you want) contain the .el files too, so you have the source code anyway. Sam> Look folks, I did RTFM, and I have installed numerous programs in the Sam> past. It might sound presumptuous, but I would say that if I can't Sam> figure out the docs, at least part of the problem is with the docs. It indeed sounds presumptuous. You're on a beta list, talking about a not yet released feature. AFAIK, the docs are OK for what 99% of the XEmacs users will do, that is grabbing the tarballs (both XEmacs and pre-compiled packages). If they are not, they will be updated before XEmacs 21.0 is released. However, what you want to do is not trivial. Until quite recently, before the archive was put under CVS, only Steve Baur (our maintainer) had a full packages source tree. Currently, I think that even the majority of people on this list grab the packages tarballs and don't use the CVS archive. So please, don't expect the doc to be completely written before the feature itself is stabilized, don't imagine you'll understand everything before being there for a while. There will always be a kind soul to answer you questions, this is an open developement model. Footnotes: [1] If Mickael Sperber who's writing the package code follows my post-flamewar recommendations, this will change, along with some other things like the placement of mule packages and maybe some directories names and places. -- / / _ _ Didier Verna http://www.inf.enst.fr/~verna/ - / / - / / /_/ / E.N.S.T. INF C201.1 mailto:verna＠inf.enst.fr /_/ / /_/ / /__ / 46 rue Barrault Tel. (33) 01 45 81 73 46 75634 Paris cedex 13 Fax. (33) 01 45 81 31 19