Bug#1109949: emacs: Generate built-in package info metadata
Hello, On Sun 27 Jul 2025 at 11:44am -07, Xiyue Deng wrote: > Hi Sean, > > Thanks for your comments! > > Sean Whitton writes: > >> Hello Xiyue, >> >> Thanks. A few comments: >> >> - how about using a sexp rather than JSON, since we are Lispers around >> here? :) > > My intention is for this to be simple and human readable, so a > one-line-per-entry kind of format that is more universally accessible > would be ideal, which is why I chose JSON. Sexp is of course native to > Lisp environments, but as we now have a fast JSON parser built-in to > Emacs it's not that bad if we want to use this info in Elisp :) Okay. >> - how about installing the file somewhere? might be useful for other >> things to reference the information > > This information is provided by apt-cache/dpkg already for external > tools, so I don't think providing another separate source would help > more. As mentioned in the previous mail, this is currently intended to > be useful for maintainers for keep tracking, so storing in the source > packaging and accessible through Salsa should be good enough for now. > >> - let's use the debian/emacs-nox/emacs again, so that there is no chance >> the information goes out-of-sync. > > See above. > >> [...] > > Now admittedly, this is more like a design-for-future thing, so it's > possible that this turns out to be not really useful. I'm OK if we want > to keep things simple for now and revisit this when there is an actual > need to add this info. Okay. Let's leave this bug open, then. -- Sean Whitton signature.asc Description: PGP signature
Bug#1109949: emacs: Generate built-in package info metadata
Hi Sean, Thanks for your comments! Sean Whitton writes: > Hello Xiyue, > > Thanks. A few comments: > > - how about using a sexp rather than JSON, since we are Lispers around > here? :) My intention is for this to be simple and human readable, so a one-line-per-entry kind of format that is more universally accessible would be ideal, which is why I chose JSON. Sexp is of course native to Lisp environments, but as we now have a fast JSON parser built-in to Emacs it's not that bad if we want to use this info in Elisp :) > - how about installing the file somewhere? might be useful for other > things to reference the information This information is provided by apt-cache/dpkg already for external tools, so I don't think providing another separate source would help more. As mentioned in the previous mail, this is currently intended to be useful for maintainers for keep tracking, so storing in the source packaging and accessible through Salsa should be good enough for now. > - let's use the debian/emacs-nox/emacs again, so that there is no chance > the information goes out-of-sync. See above. > [...] Now admittedly, this is more like a design-for-future thing, so it's possible that this turns out to be not really useful. I'm OK if we want to keep things simple for now and revisit this when there is an actual need to add this info. -- Regards, Xiyue Deng signature.asc Description: PGP signature
Bug#1109949: emacs: Generate built-in package info metadata
Hello Xiyue, Thanks. A few comments: - how about using a sexp rather than JSON, since we are Lispers around here? :) - how about installing the file somewhere? might be useful for other things to reference the information - let's use the debian/emacs-nox/emacs again, so that there is no chance the information goes out-of-sync. -- Sean Whitton signature.asc Description: PGP signature
