Re: Latest Nyxt features a GUI for Guix :)

[Jan Wielkiewicz <tona_kosmicznego_smiecia@interia.pl>]

Dnia 2020-11-11, o godz. 19:35:57
Pierre Neidhardt <mail@ambrevar.xyz> napisał(a):

> Hi Jan,
> 
> Jan Wielkiewicz <tona_kosmicznego_smiecia@interia.pl> writes:
> 
> >> I've just updated the Nyxt package to 2-pre-release-4 which
> >> includes a package manager GUI that supports Guix!
> > Did you and a GUI for the package manager into the browser...? :)
> 
> Sorry, what did you mean? :)
Sorry for I-had-a-stroke message. I often build my sentences
non-linearly and end up with sliced streams of consciousness.

What I was supposed to write:
"Did you add a GUI for the package manager into the browser...? :)"

> > I mean it's good to have a GUI for Guix, but isn't this against so
> > called "UNIX Philosophy" or modularity, saying more precisely?
> 
> What is against the Unix philosophy?
I don't really like the term, because it became a buzzword recently,
but generally what I mean is building a program on top of a giant
framework such as a web browser isn't the best desing choice.
I think programs should be build in the modular fashion, so each
element is easily replaceable. I believe web browsers tend to do many
things and do them badly - they're a really poorly designed copy of
operating systems and its utilities.

I guess your choice comes from the lack of a proper GUI toolkit
available, but I'm just not a big fan of web browsers generally.
In fact I started writing my own GUI toolkit/application framework in
Guile just for the purpose of bringing modularity to GUI applications,
but I'm rather unexperienced and this might take a few years. 

> I don't think GUIs are against anything.  This GUI I've worked on a
> merely an interface, it does nothing but use the Guix API.
The first sentence made my point not clear - I have nothing against
GUIs.

> It makes searching and install/uninstall and generation delete
> operations very convenient.  Everything is much easier when you have
> an interactive minibuffer with live fuzzy search ;)
That's good, I just don't understand why in the web browser.
I'll try it.

> Cheers!
>