But I don't think the issue is with package.el per se. You get the same problem if you try to install org-mode manually without package.el. What is really needed to fix this problem is some mechanism which will ensure all org related definitions are somehow purged from the running instance before attempting to install and compile a new version. Provided there is no org-mode functionality loaded when you install a later version with package.el, it works fine.
Tim Cross <theophilusx@gmail.com> writes:
> I would agree that org should be a package in elpa and not bundled into emacs core. The user can then choose which version to install (ignoring the package dependency problem).
I disagree with removing Org-mode from Emacs core, as I've explained elsewhere.
> This won't fix all the issues as anyone installing a new major version when an existing version is already loaded will run into the same problems. Bottom line, as org stands now, upgrading when org is already loaded is problematic.
It would be very unfortunate if we removed Org-mode from Emacs core
with the sole motivation to band-aid an issue with upgrading packages
in package.el.
So I would put your above argument more bluntly: removing Org-mode
from Emacs core would be to sweep the problem under the rug.
package.el is still broken.
Best regards,
Stefan Kangas
--