`el-get' now defaults to caring about packages known "required" and "installed" from the status file.

This should bring a much easier to understand semantics, near of that of
apt-get and friends: by default, any installed package is automatically
initialized at next startup without special care.  If you don't need local
recipes, you don't need to edit and maintain any `el-get-sources'.

It's still possible to manually prepare a list of packages to install, so
that you can share your setup between multiple installations.  To do that,
give the package list (names or symbols) to the (el-get) call in your setup.
This way you can also maintain specific lists depending on system or network
or whatever is useful for you.  That's the advanced setup, documented.

README.asciidoc

@@ -73,7 +73,29 @@ avoid this with the following snippet instead:
 See next section for details about how to setup you emacs so that it's able
 to benefit from +el-get+ automatically.
 
-== What is this?
+== Basic usage
+
+Now that +el-get+ is installed, simply use +M-x el-get-install+ and pick
+whatever package you need.  Arrange to have +el-get+ part of your setup, so
+that at next emacs startup the installed packages are initialized.  Here's
+how to:
+
+--------------------------------------
+(add-to-list 'load-path "~/.emacs.d/el-get/el-get")
+
+(unless (require 'el-get nil t)
+  (url-retrieve
+   "https://github.com/dimitri/el-get/raw/master/el-get-install.el"
+   (lambda (s)
+     (end-of-buffer)
+     (eval-print-last-sexp))))
+
+(el-get 'sync)
+--------------------------------------
+
+That's the basic setup.
+
+== Advanced setup with local recipes
 
 Of course, my emacs setup is managed in a private git repository. Some
 people on +#emacs+ are using +git submodules+ (or was it straight import)
@@ -85,10 +107,9 @@ run emacs, and I want this documentation to be usable as-is. Enters el-get!
 (add-to-list 'load-path "~/.emacs.d/el-get/el-get")
 (require 'el-get)
 
+;; local sources
 (setq el-get-sources
-      '(cssh el-get switch-window vkill google-maps nxhtml xcscope yasnippet
-
-	(:name magit
+      '((:name magit
 	       :after (lambda () (global-set-key (kbd "C-x C-z") 'magit-status)))
 
 	(:name asciidoc
@@ -104,7 +125,12 @@ run emacs, and I want this documentation to be usable as-is. Enters el-get!
         (:name dictionary-el    :type apt-get)
         (:name emacs-goodies-el :type apt-get)))
 
-(el-get)
+(setq 'my-packages
+      (append
+       '(cssh el-get switch-window vkill google-maps nxhtml xcscope yasnippet)
+       (loop for src in el-get-sources collect (el-get-source-name src))))
+
+(el-get 'sync my-packages)
 --------------------------------------
 
 So now you have a pretty good documentation of the packages you want
@@ -154,13 +180,14 @@ You even get a progress report!
 
 === Sources
 
-See the documentation of the +el-get-sources+ variable for details.
+See the documentation of the +el-get-sources+ variable for details.  Please
+note that +el-get-sources+ is a 
 
 Note that you can also give a mix of +packages+ symbols, +inline recipes+
 and +source lists+ to +el-get+ as arguments, and completely bypass the
 +el-get-sources+ variable.
 
-  (el-get 'sync 'package 'name '(:name foo :type emacswiki) other-list-of-sources)
+  (el-get 'sync 'package 'name 'list-of-packages-names-or-symbol)
 
 It is still recommended to +(setq el-get-sources '(list of packages))+ then
 use +(el-get 'sync)+, so that commands such as +el-get-update+ know which
@@ -211,8 +238,7 @@ Yes, ok.
 
 M-x el-get-sync::
 
-    Synchronously make your current el-get status match +el-get-sources+,
-    by installing and initializing all your packages.
+    Synchronously install any "required" package and init any "installed" one.
 
 M-x el-get-cd::
 

el-get.el

@@ -3092,7 +3092,34 @@ entry which is not a symbol and is not already a known recipe."
 ;;
 ;; User Interface, Non Interactive part
 ;;
-(defun el-get (&optional sync &rest source-list)
+(defun el-get-init-and-install (&optional packages)
+  "Install \"required\" packages, init \"installed\" packages.
+
+When PACKAGES is non-nil, only process entries from this list.
+Those packages from the list we don't know the status of are
+considered \"required\"."
+  (message "PHOQUE %S" packages)
+  (let* ((required    (el-get-list-package-names-with-status "required"))
+	 (installed   (el-get-list-package-names-with-status "installed"))
+	 (to-init     (if packages
+			  (loop for p in packages
+				when (member (el-get-as-string p) installed)
+				collect (el-get-as-string p))
+			installed))
+	 (to-install  (if packages
+			  (loop for p in packages
+				unless (member (el-get-as-symbol p) to-init)
+				collect (el-get-as-string p))
+			required)))
+    (el-get-verbose-message "el-get-init-and-install: init %S" to-init)
+    (el-get-verbose-message "el-get-init-and-install: install %S" to-install)
+    (loop for p in
+	  (append
+	   (loop for p in to-install do (el-get-install p) collect p)
+	   (loop for p in to-init    do (el-get-init p)    collect p))
+	  collect p)))
+
+(defun el-get (&optional sync &rest packages)
   "Ensure that packages have been downloaded once and init them as needed.
 
 This will not update the sources by using `apt-get install' or
@@ -3120,26 +3147,13 @@ done synchronously, so you will have to wait here. There's
 `byte-compile' support though, and the packages you use are
 welcome to use `autoload' too.
 
-SOURCE-LIST is expected to be a list of sources you want to
-install or init.  Each element in this list can be either a
-package name, a package recipe, or a proper source list.  When
-SOURCE-LIST is omitted, `el-get-standard-packages' is used."
+PACKAGES is expected to be a list of packages you want to install
+or init.  When PACKAGES is omited (the default), the list of
+already installed packages is considered."
   (unless (or (null sync)
 	      (member sync '(sync wait)))
     (error "el-get sync parameter should be either nil, sync or wait"))
 
-  ;; Customizations are written to the end of the user's init file, so
-  ;; if el-get is being called from the init file, the desired value
-  ;; of `el-get-standard-packages' won't be known yet.
-  ;;
-  ;; Unless a specific set of packages was requested, the user expects
-  ;; all the standard packages to be initialized, so unless the
-  ;; customizations have been seen, remember to invoke el-get one more
-  ;; time after initial customizations have been read in.
-  (unless (or source-list
-              (get 'el-get-standard-packages 'saved-value))
-    (add-hook 'after-init-hook (apply-partially 'el-get sync)))
-
   ;; If there's no autoload file, everything needs to be regenerated.
   (if (not (file-exists-p el-get-autoload-file)) (el-get-invalidate-autoloads))
 
@@ -3153,22 +3167,10 @@ SOURCE-LIST is omitted, `el-get-standard-packages' is used."
 			 0 100 0)))
          (el-get-default-process-sync sync))
 
-    ;; keep the result of mapcar to return it even in the 'wait case
+    ;; keep the result of `el-get-init-and-install' to return it even in the
+    ;; 'wait case
     (prog1
-	;; build el-get-sources from source-list, flattening only one level
-	;; of embedded lists in there.  That allows users to be as lazy as:
-	;; (el-get 'sync 'package 'name (:name recipe) el-get-sources)
-	(let ((el-get-sources
-	       (if source-list
-		 (loop for sources in source-list
-		       when (and (listp sources)
-				 (not (plist-member sources :name)))
-		       append sources
-		       else collect sources)
-                 el-get-sources)))
-
-          (dolist (s (el-get-standard-package-list))
-            (el-get-install s)))
+	(apply 'el-get-init-and-install packages)
 
       ;; el-get-do-install is async, that's now ongoing.
       (when progress
@@ -3183,11 +3185,11 @@ SOURCE-LIST is omitted, `el-get-standard-packages' is used."
             (progress-reporter-update
              progress
              (/ (* 100.0 (- newly-installing still-installing)) newly-installing)))
-        (progress-reporter-done progress)))))
+        (progress-reporter-done progress)))
 
-  ;; unless we have autoloads to update, just load them now
-  (unless el-get-outdated-autoloads
-    (el-get-eval-autoloads)))
+      ;; unless we have autoloads to update, just load them now
+      (unless el-get-outdated-autoloads
+	(el-get-eval-autoloads)))))
 
 (provide 'el-get)