Re: [Various] Mailcrypt - EMACS package maintainers please read this message.

[Rob Browning <rlb@cs.utexas.edu>]

karlheg@bittersweet.inetarena.com (Karl M. Hegbloom) writes:

> I think this is a very wrong thing to recommend.  Elisp packages
> should normally run byte-compiled, and this is not only about speed of 
> compiled-vs.-uncompiled code.  The code that makes heavy use of macros 
> (e.g. using `cl' extensions) will literally *drag* when uncompiled.

Here's the recommendataion in the current draft of the
debian-emacs-policy document:

  5) Packages with only marginal emacs relevance

     Generally, if a normal package just contains some emacs helper
     files, and does not need to perform any byte-compilation or other
     emacs dependent activities upon installation (for performance or
     other reasons), then it is not necessary to specify a dependency on
     emacsen or any flavor of emacs, and the package may just include
     files located in the standard emacs add-on directories.

Note that this indicates that in these cases it's up to the maintainer
to determine when performance is an issue.  For example, if there's
only one .el file, and it just contains

  (setq load-path (cons "/some/load/dir") load-path)

Then I don't think byte-compiling's worth the effort.

-- 
Rob Browning <rlb@cs.utexas.edu>
PGP fingerprint = E8 0E 0D 04 F5 21 A0 94  53 2B 97 F5 D6 4E 39 30