%% MELPA

[ [Packages](#current-list-of-packages) ]
[ [Installing](#installing) ]
[ [Known Issues](#known-issues) ]
[ [Updating Packages](#updating-packages) ]
[ [Development](#development) ]

*MELPA* or *Milkypostman's ELPA* or *Milkypostman's Experimental Lisp Package Repository* if you're not into the whole brevity thing.

> a repository for development versions of Emacs packages (hot from the repo).

**Last Update:** *<%= Time.now.strftime("%Y.%m.%d %H:%M") %>*

## Current List of Packages

<%
  def parse str
    # credit to: http://stackoverflow.com/q/3128406/154508
    tokens = str.scan(/#{Regexp.escape("(")}|#{Regexp.escape(")")}|[a-zA-Z0-9\-\_\+]+/)

    stack = [[]]

    tokens.each do |tok|
      case tok
      when "("
        stack << []
      when ")"
        stack[-2] << stack.pop
      else
        stack[-1] << tok
      end
    end

    return stack[-1][-1]
  end


  headers = ["Package", "Version", "Description"]

  data = parse(File.open("../packages/archive-contents").read)[1..-1]


  data.map! do |row|
    [row[0], row[1][0], row[3..-2].join(" ")]
  end
  data.sort!

  colwidth = [0,0,0]

  data.map do |row|
    row.to_enum(:each_with_index).map do |e,i|
      colwidth[i] = [colwidth[i], e.length].max
    end
  end
%>
<%=
    headers.to_enum(:each_with_index).map{
      |h,i| h + " "*(colwidth[i]-h.length) }.join(" ")
%>
<%= colwidth.map{ |w| "-"*w }.join(" ") %>
<%=
    data.map{ |row|
    row.to_enum(:each_with_index).map{ |c,i|
       c + " "*(colwidth[i]-c.length)
       }.join(" ")
    }.join("\n")
%>


## Installing

To add the repository put this before the call to `package-initialize`
in your `init.el` file.

<!-- <script src="https://gist.github.com/1679158.js"> </script> -->

    (add-to-list 'package-archives
                 '("melpa" . "http://melpa.milkbox.net/packages/") t)
    

Please read about [known issues](#known-issues) below before
attempting to install multiple packages at once.

### Customizations

There is currently no way in `package.el` to exclude or include versions.  So to remedy this I ahve created a package that will allow you to enable only certain packages or exclude certain packages.  You can install the package by pasting this into yoru `*scratch*` buffer and evaluating it.

    (progn
      (switch-to-buffer
       (url-retrieve-synchronously
        "https://raw.github.com/milkypostman/melpa/master/melpa.el"))
      (package-install-from-buffer  (package-buffer-info) 'single))


You can then customize two variables:

`melpa-package-enable`
:   List of MELPA packages to enable.  Empty list enables all packages.

`melpa-package-exclude`
:   List of MELPA package to exclude.  This list trumps those specified in `melpa-package-enable`.


## Known Issues

Due to the way the HTTP routing works on my provider, the HTTP/1.1
connection will time out for long package installs -- where the
package is large and takes a while to compile -- like *magit* or *evil*.

<!-- <script src="https://gist.github.com/1679208.js"> </script> -->

    (setq url-http-attempt-keepalives nil)

This makes things a tad more slow but means that the install completes
correctly. Otherwise the connection times out and the install goes haywire.

### Fixes for `package.el`

**Note:** *These fixes are included in the `melpa.el` package.*

There are a number of small bugs in Emacs24's `package.el`. First,
when installing dependencies, the packages were not getting
initialized.  Second, the order for dependencies was coming out
backwards for what I needed.  Both problems are
 easily patched by some *advice*.  
 
<!-- <script src="https://gist.github.com/1679232.js"> </script> -->

    (defadvice package-compute-transaction
      (before
       package-compute-transaction-reverse (package-list requirements)
       activate compile)
      "reverse the requirements"
      (setq requirements (reverse requirements))
      (print requirements))
    
    (defadvice package-download-tar
      (after package-download-tar-initialize activate compile)
      "initialize the package after compilation"
      (package-initialize))
    
    (defadvice package-download-single
      (after package-download-single-initialize activate compile)
      "initialize the package after compilation"
      (package-initialize))
    

## Updating Packages

`package.el` now includes a mechanism to upgrade packages.  After running `package-list-pacages`, type *u* (mark Upgradable packages) and then *x* (eXecute the installs and deletions).  When it's done installing all the packages it will ask if you want to delete the obsolete packages and so you can hit *y* (Yes).

If you run into a problem installing or upgrading, you may need to go into your `~/.emacs.d/elpa/` directory and delete packages that are installed multiple times.  This can happen when the install times out (see [Known Issues](#known-issues)).

## Development

[https://github.com/milkypostman/melpa](https://github.com/milkypostman/melpa)

Contributions are welcome.  Currently, the builder only supports
packages using git, subversion, mercurial, and darcs.  This covers
most of the packages that I am interested in.