Document the differences between spacemacs and spacemacs-base

[xfq]

I searched README.md, doc/DOCUMENTATION.org, and doc/FAQ.org, but found nothing about the differences of these two distributions. The only place I found a little info about them is in dotspacemacs/install, but IMHO the info there isn't enough. As a user, I'd like to know the exact differences between these two distributions to help me make a choice, e.g., which packages are in spacemacs but not in spacemacs-base.

[robbyoconnor]

spacemacs-base is a stripped down version. spacemacs builds off of spacemacs-base.

If you're curious what they include you can check in in layers/+distribution/

I only know about it because I use develop and follow development very closely.

[justbur]

@xfq #2937 shows the differences. I agree though. It should be explained in the docs

[roytruelove]

In core/core-dotspacemacs.el when referring to spacemacs-base there is a comment saying "A minimalist distribution that you can build on.. I'd take that to mean that one would be able to simply add packages to package.el whenever one wished.

However if you diff the spacemacs and spacemacs-base distributions is code in spacemacs-base that isn't in spacemacs, which means that you'd have to know when to remove that code from spacemacs-base when you add a package that makes said code unnecessary.

As a beginner I'd prefer to start with spacemacs-base but because of my not fully understanding what that extra code does, I've decided that it's too risky.

tl;dr - part of the docs should include how to build upon spacemacs-base.

[TheBB]

However if you diff the spacemacs and spacemacs-base distributions [there] is code in spacemacs-base that isn't in spacemacs

The spacemacs-base layer is used implicitly and unconditionally. Therefore someone who is using the spacemacs layer is actually using both the spacemacs layer and the spacemacs-base layer.

[benthamite]

I wasn't able to find the files referenced in the relevant FAQ section. In general, there appears to be precious little information about spacemacs-base, which makes it difficult to build a minimal configuration methodically. I would appreciate some additional documentation, ideally what layers and/or packages would turn spacemacs-base into the standard spacemacs distribution, so that those who want to transition to the former can do so by a process of gradual elimination.

[syl20bnr]

Let me see what I can do to improve this.