{"action":"created","issue":{"url":"https://api.github.com/repos/dimitri/el-get/issues/2279","labels_url":"https://api.github.com/repos/dimitri/el-get/issues/2279/labels{/name}","comments_url":"https://api.github.com/repos/dimitri/el-get/issues/2279/comments","events_url":"https://api.github.com/repos/dimitri/el-get/issues/2279/events","html_url":"https://github.com/dimitri/el-get/issues/2279","id":114219261,"number":2279,"title":"support for old versions of emacs (and even packages?)","user":{"login":"aspiers","id":100738,"avatar_url":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/100738?v=3","gravatar_id":"","url":"https://api.github.com/users/aspiers","html_url":"https://github.com/aspiers","followers_url":"https://api.github.com/users/aspiers/followers","following_url":"https://api.github.com/users/aspiers/following{/other_user}","gists_url":"https://api.github.com/users/aspiers/gists{/gist_id}","starred_url":"https://api.github.com/users/aspiers/starred{/owner}{/repo}","subscriptions_url":"https://api.github.com/users/aspiers/subscriptions","organizations_url":"https://api.github.com/users/aspiers/orgs","repos_url":"https://api.github.com/users/aspiers/repos","events_url":"https://api.github.com/users/aspiers/events{/privacy}","received_events_url":"https://api.github.com/users/aspiers/received_events","type":"User","site_admin":false},"labels":[],"state":"open","locked":false,"assignee":null,"milestone":null,"comments":5,"created_at":"2015-10-30T07:50:09Z","updated_at":"2015-10-30T20:53:47Z","closed_at":null,"body":"It seems that if you have an older version of emacs and want a particular package, sometimes you are just out of luck.  For example `magit.rcp` has:\r\n\r\n       :minimum-emacs-version \"24.4\"\r\n\r\nWhen this was introduced it effectively forced all magit users to instantly upgrade.  It would be nice if older versions of recipes could be preserved somehow to avoid this.  There are four obvious possibilities:\r\n\r\n1. Maintain branches of el-get for each emacs version\r\n2. Allow version-specific recipes, e.g. `magit-24.3.rcp`\r\n3. Allow including support for older versions within a single recipe\r\n4. Declare this outside the scope of `el-get` and recommend some alternative solution for those who don't want to or can't live on the bleeding edge.\r\n\r\nI can immediately think of disadvantages to all of them, but I'm not sure which is least bad.\r\n\r\nSimilarly (or alternately) we could think about supporting older versions of packages, e.g. `magit-1.4.2.rcp`.  I know this is probably all a big can of worms, but I think a lot of wisdom could be stolen from other places, e.g. Ruby gems and Bundler, and distro packaging.  Currently emacs package versioning and dependency tracking seems to still be somewhat in the dark ages."},"comment":{"url":"https://api.github.com/repos/dimitri/el-get/issues/comments/152648727","html_url":"https://github.com/dimitri/el-get/issues/2279#issuecomment-152648727","issue_url":"https://api.github.com/repos/dimitri/el-get/issues/2279","id":152648727,"user":{"login":"aspiers","id":100738,"avatar_url":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/100738?v=3","gravatar_id":"","url":"https://api.github.com/users/aspiers","html_url":"https://github.com/aspiers","followers_url":"https://api.github.com/users/aspiers/followers","following_url":"https://api.github.com/users/aspiers/following{/other_user}","gists_url":"https://api.github.com/users/aspiers/gists{/gist_id}","starred_url":"https://api.github.com/users/aspiers/starred{/owner}{/repo}","subscriptions_url":"https://api.github.com/users/aspiers/subscriptions","organizations_url":"https://api.github.com/users/aspiers/orgs","repos_url":"https://api.github.com/users/aspiers/repos","events_url":"https://api.github.com/users/aspiers/events{/privacy}","received_events_url":"https://api.github.com/users/aspiers/received_events","type":"User","site_admin":false},"created_at":"2015-10-30T20:53:47Z","updated_at":"2015-10-30T20:53:47Z","body":"> every version of the magit recipe installs the current magit master.\r\n\r\nAh of course, I should have thought of that :)\r\n\r\n> It's just installing \"the latest version\" and that's all it really knows, unless you go out of your way to tell it more. So I'm doubtful that el-get is the right tool for the job of supporting multiple versions of packages for use on multiple emacsen.\r\n\r\nOK that makes sense.  Clearly users will want bleeding edge for certain packages (e.g. dependencies of packages they are personally developing) but not for others.  So if `el-get` doesn't provide complete coverage for all use cases, this seems to imply to me that it should enable or at least peacefully co-exist with other installation mechanisms which *do* support installing older versions - right?  I guess it can already support use of MELPA stable; I wonder if there is more scope for improvements though. "}}