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* Idea: a meta language for (language) build systems - npm, Racket, Rust cargo
@ 2021-05-30  8:38 Pjotr Prins
  2021-05-30 19:17 ` Konrad Hinsen
  0 siblings, 1 reply; 21+ messages in thread
From: Pjotr Prins @ 2021-05-30  8:38 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: guix-devel

Maybe this is a crazy idea:

It appears to me that every language out there today is creating their
own build system. We know that creating build-system package support
for GNU Guix is complicated by:

1. Live updates over the internet
2. Circular dependencies
3. Tests requiring internet access

Now we never got to truely solving npm, for example. And despite
heroic efforts: Go, Rust, Racket are often in stages of disarray.

The irony is that, when we leverage GNU Guix infrastructure, the
software packages themselves can be really simple. All we need is a
source ball and a little metadata. From that GNU Guix can do the hard
stuff and handle the builds and dependencies. This is why our C build
system is so effective and simple packages translate well to GNU Guix.

My idea is this: rather than generating 'imports' from native build
packages for every target - which is kinda laborious in its way - we
could translate an existing Rust/Node/Racket package into an
intermediate simple package tar ball - call it a sexp-pack ;). This
repackaged sexp-pack can only reference other sexp-packs which gets
rid of (1). The sexp-pack generator can identify and help resolve
circular dependencies which solves (2). At this intermediate stage we
can also also patch sources which helps with (3). We would have a
sexp-pack for cargo and another for npm.

As sexp-packs are generated from source, the GNU Guix turn around and
packaging time can potentially be sped up. And once a hosted sexp-pack
exists it is stable.

It may be silly to create another layer (of indirection). But I think
that breaking up the packaging process this way will help us to
actually fix npm and cargo support in a reasonable time frame. Also it
works the other way, I would no longer need cargo or Racket packages
;)

Pj.



^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 21+ messages in thread

end of thread, other threads:[~2021-06-20 15:46 UTC | newest]

Thread overview: 21+ messages (download: mbox.gz / follow: Atom feed)
-- links below jump to the message on this page --
2021-05-30  8:38 Idea: a meta language for (language) build systems - npm, Racket, Rust cargo Pjotr Prins
2021-05-30 19:17 ` Konrad Hinsen
2021-05-31 17:47   ` Pjotr Prins
2021-06-01  5:50     ` Adriano Peluso
2021-06-01  6:24     ` Leo Prikler
2021-06-01  7:23       ` Pjotr Prins
2021-06-01  8:12         ` Leo Prikler
2021-06-01  8:59       ` Adriano Peluso
2021-06-01  9:11         ` Leo Prikler
2021-06-01 10:52           ` Adriano Peluso
2021-06-01 11:03             ` Leo Prikler
2021-06-01 11:28               ` Adriano Peluso
2021-06-01 15:22                 ` Leo Prikler
2021-06-01  7:56     ` Konrad Hinsen
2021-06-01 23:35       ` Joshua Branson
2021-06-08 13:11     ` Ludovic Courtès
2021-06-14 14:29       ` Pjotr Prins
2021-06-14 22:04         ` Leo Prikler
2021-06-15  8:48           ` Pjotr Prins
2021-06-15 10:08           ` Ricardo Wurmus
2021-06-20 15:46         ` Ludovic Courtès

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