Grey Matter

[Stephen J. Turnbull]

David Kastrup writes:

 > Poor excuse.  If there is no obvious way to get from the greyed-out
 > menu entry to an installed package providing it, it just serves to
 > annoy the user.

There is an obvious way: ask on XEmacs-Beta. :-)

 > For people wanting to discover everything, there is Sumo.  People
 > not installing it presumably _want_ a customized XEmacs.

In practice, that usually turns out not to be the case.  They *think*
they want a customized (usually spelled s-l-i-m) XEmacs, then discover
they want the kitchen sink after all.

 > If a less than Sumo XEmacs is strictly inferior not just in
 > functionality but also usability and simplicity than Sumo, the
 > package system provides _only_ disadvantages to the user when
 > compared to a monolithic system like Emacs.

Not at all.

1. "make beta; make check" is *way* faster than just "make bootstrap".
   ("What's good for the developers trickles down to the users.")
2. New packages can be officially released without a SUMO release, and
   without an XEmacs release.
3. Upgraded packages can be made available much faster than XEmacs
   releases.
4. Experimental versions of *some* packages can be installed, and will
   upgrade smoothly when officially released.
5. APIs used by packages tend to drift rather than fault.  (This has
   its ups and downs, but IMO the users get a better experience.)
6. It keeps Tom Tromey busy.  Ie, packages seem to be pretty popular at
   Emacs Central, too,