value of maintaining emacs-mode packages in ports

[Daniel Feenberg]

On Sun, 23 Nov 2014, Christopher J. Ruwe wrote:

>
> In that light and as the ports maintainer of math/ess, the Emacs
> speaks statistics R-mode of emacs, I am asking myself specifically
> whether I add any real benefit in maintaining math/ess. More
> generally, I am interested in community answers as to whether it is
> really useful to maintain Emacs-extension-packages in ports.
>

As a non-Emacs user, can I raise some questions that should be asked every 
time a service/feature is withdrawn?

If you stop maintaining math/ess, does it go away, or merely stop 
improving?

Does the Emacs package system support the same versions of Emacs that you 
support in math/ess?

If a user upgrades FreeBSD will he lose what he has unless he converts to 
the new Emacs package system?

Is the Emacs package system something that requires an installation of its 
own?

May I suggest that if you let it go away, you place a README file where 
Emacs-extension-packages was that points users to the replacement, with 
instructions for how to get there? Not everyone using Emacs on FreeBSD 
follows the mailing lists for FreeBSD, (or Emacs).

Daniel Feenberg