There is no option package-archives

[k-bx]

I installed fresh emacs24-nox, ran it, wanted to install haskell-mode, due to instructions:

To install haskell-mode you need to add a package archive repository that distributes haskell-mode. Execute

M-x customize-option RET package-archives

But there is not option package-archives. Maybe correct would be to advice to customize-variable RET package-archives?

[syohex]

Please add (require 'package) to your configuration file(~/.emacs.d/init.el) and retry.

See also

• http://ergoemacs.org/emacs/emacs_package_system.html
• http://emacswiki.org/emacs/ELPA

[k-bx]

@syohex Should we update README with this info? These instructions are the very first thing you see at https://github.com/haskell/haskell-mode

// btw, using customize-variable worked for me.

[syohex]

Should we update README with this info?

Yes. It is good for Emacs newbies.

[gracjan]

README.md should be as newbie friendly as possible. By all means please improve as much as you can and send a pull request.

Note that our users are programmers so we should give them a hint that we very eagerly accept contributions.

[gracjan]

Per Emacs documentation: customize-variable is an alias for customize-option' incus-edit.el'.

[k-bx]

@gracjan thank you, it is indeed weird then. I confirm they do seem equal, probably something happened during restart, and this variable occurred.

Removing ~/.emacs and ~/.emacs.d removes this variable from options again (from both commands). I'll try to observe further.

[k-bx]

Adding (require 'package) helps (adds this variable to customize-option/customize-variable list), so maybe it should be added to instructions.

[gracjan]

If this is so complicated we should just point people to official MELPA documentation that says to to make use of melpa or melpa-stable.