* ses.el (macroexp): add require for this package, so that function

`ses--cell gets macroexp-quote.
(ses--cell): makes formula a macroexp-quote of value when formula
is nil. The rationale of this changr is to allow in the future
shorter SES files, e.g. we could have only `(ses-cell A1 1.0)'
instead of `(ses-cell A1 1.0 1.0 nil REFLIST)'. In such a case
reference list REFLIST would be re-computed after load --- thus
trading off load time against file size.

* emacs-lisp/package.el (package--alist-to-plist-args): use
macroexp-quote instead of a lambda expression which has the same
content as macroexp-quote.
(macroexp): add require for this package, so that function
`package--alist-to-plist-args' gets macroexp-quote.

* emacs-lisp/macroexp.el (macroexp-quote): new defun.

lisp/emacs-lisp/macroexp.el

@@ -370,6 +370,18 @@ symbol itself."
   "Return non-nil if EXP can be copied without extra cost."
   (or (symbolp exp) (macroexp-const-p exp)))
 
+(defun macroexp-quote (v)
+  "Returns an expression E such that `(eval E)' is V.
+
+E is either V or (quote V) depending on whether V evaluates to
+itself or not."
+  (if (and (not (consp v))
+	   (or (keywordp v)
+	       (not (symbolp v))
+	       (memq v '(nil t))))
+      v
+    (list 'quote v)))
+
 ;;; Load-time macro-expansion.
 
 ;; Because macro-expansion used to be more lazy, eager macro-expansion

lisp/emacs-lisp/package.el

@@ -165,6 +165,7 @@
 (eval-when-compile (require 'epg))      ;For setf accessors.
 
 (require 'tabulated-list)
+(require 'macroexp)
 
 (defgroup package nil
   "Manager for Emacs Lisp packages."
@@ -723,12 +724,7 @@ untar into a directory named DIR; otherwise, signal an error."
        nil pkg-file nil 'silent))))
 
 (defun package--alist-to-plist-args (alist)
-  (mapcar (lambda (x)
-            (if (and (not (consp x))
-                     (or (keywordp x)
-                         (not (symbolp x))
-                         (memq x '(nil t))))
-                x `',x))
+  (mapcar 'macroexp-quote
           (apply #'nconc
                  (mapcar (lambda (pair) (list (car pair) (cdr pair))) alist))))
 (defun package-unpack (pkg-desc)