Re: Guix as a Guile package manager

[Fabio Pesari <fabiop@gnu.org>]

On 01/09/2016 04:30 PM, Thompson, David wrote:
>
> I don't think Guix is a good fit here, because there's simply no way
> around the fact that Guix packages *must* contain the full dependency
> graph for build-time and runtime dependencies.  There's no way that
> you could use, say, the Guile or GCC from your host system because
> doing so invalidates the entire purpose and design of Guix.  Thus, a
> Debian user that tried to use a Guile-specific package manager based
> on Guix would be surprised when it starts compiling its own glibc,
> GCC, Guile, etc.  So, I don't see anything worth extracting from Guix
> to use to build a Guile-specific package manager.

Hello David,

and thank you for your answer!

As a simple user, I didn't know enough about the finer points of Guix in
this context so I really appreciate your answer. I thought some of Guix'
package management functionalities could be worked into a less specific
program but if it can't be done, it can't be done!

> I encourage you to hack on Guildhall to make it more usable for your
> needs.

I've seen people work on dozens of package managers over the years and
honestly, I don't feel like working on one unless it's officially part
of the language or it already has mainstream adoption.

It's a Catch 22, I know, but those projects all amount to re-inventing
the wheel and trying to solve the same problems over and over again
until they get abandoned because nobody uses them (like it happened with
Guildhall, last updated in June).

I know Guile was designed as an extension language so it is excused from
not having a package manager, but with the latest developments and Guix
in particular I thought the language was heading in a more
general-purpose direction and that's why I posted this proposal.