Some questions about packages

I eventually played with package-* instead of untarring where needed and I think the low-level routines are quite nice. The only missing thing is a point-and-drool interface for normal users[1] and a remote package-get-base. Some questions though: 1- I retrieve a package with package-get. How can I "activate" it ? For instance, I find-file a Makefile. The editor yells at me that makefile-mode is unknown (normal). I (package-get 'makefile). Now, can I use it without restarting the editor ? - (require 'makefile) and (load-library 'makefile) do not find the files - package-*-autoloads DOC strings include blinking "don't use this or Steven will personally come and bite you where it hurts" comments. 2- Is there a magical incantation to know why a given package is loaded by (package-get-update-all)? I'd like to know why vm has suddendly[2] been considered necessary[3]. 3- If a package includes a dumped-lisp file and is retrived after having compiled and installed xemacs, will it work anyway? Of course, I'm not talking about packages like "xemacs-base" or "mule-base". 4- Is there another magical incantation to check for the internal consistency of the installed packages? The question can be reformulated as "were installed packages all up-to-date, is there a function which says which packages package-get-update-all would retrieve?". That should be enough for a start :-) OG. [1] Easier to whine than to code :-) [2] I guess I should have used package-get-all instead of package-get [3] I'm on a E1, so it's not *really* a problem, but it sucks anyway. My MUA is mutt, damnit' :-)