From: MSavoritias <email@msavoritias.me>
To: Maxim Cournoyer <maxim.cournoyer@gmail.com>
Cc: "Ekaitz Zarraga" <ekaitz@elenq.tech>,
indieterminacy <indieterminacy@libre.brussels>,
"Imran Iqbal" <imran@imraniqbal.org>,
"Giovanni Biscuolo" <g@xelera.eu>, 宋文武 <iyzsong@envs.net>,
"Katherine Cox-Buday" <cox.katherine.e@gmail.com>,
"(" <paren@disroot.org>,
guix-devel@gnu.org
Subject: Re: How can we decrease the cognitive overhead for contributors?
Date: Sun, 17 Sep 2023 14:29:22 +0300 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <3ca200ef-98bc-4545-bc27-c1fb92dac04e@fannys.me> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <87cyymw046.fsf@gmail.com>
On 9/13/23 18:42, Maxim Cournoyer wrote:
> Hi Fannys,
>
> Fannys <email@fannys.me> writes:
>
>> Ekaitz Zarraga <ekaitz@elenq.tech> writes:
>>
>>>>> This is what I mean when I say many times emacs is kind of mandatory,
>>>>> and
>>>>> this thread is kind of a demonstration of what I meant because the main
>>>>> discussion evolved to: you can use this or that in emacs to ease the
>>>>> dev
>>>>> experience.
>>>>
>>>> One of the benefits of my being able to attend Guix Days was seeing
>>>> peoples' workflows and stacks in person.
>>>>
>>>> As such, one of my conclusions having (already) committed to Guix was
>>>> that I needed to master Emacs prior to Guile
>>>> (Im highly flow orientated).
>>> But again, even if this is a great option for you, it might be a really bad
>>> option for some other people. Everybody does not have the time to spend
>>> learning emacs, or other specific tool. It's ok if the workflow suggests that
>>> but it's not great if we have no other alternative.
>>>
>>> It's not accessible and imposes a barrier in some people.
>> Yeah agreed. And we should be consious of that.
>> Ironically by mandating Emacs and Email we force people to use specific
>> tools while at the same time even though the same people will complain(!) against vendor lock-in
>> like github.
> There's no lock-in. You can use any tool you want. Most people hacking
> on Guix do so with Emacs and Geiser because these are currently the best
> tools (that I know of) to do the job; these are the tools many of us
> know and can easily recommend. If Visual Code (or editor X) was
> packaged in Guix and had great support for working with Guile, we could
> also mention it in our manual or in the cookbook.
>
> Notice I use recommend rather than mandate; these are just
> recommendations that try to be helpful. If it's not helpful to you, you
> are free to select your own tool box and share how it works (via patches
> to the contributing section or a blog post for example).
>
There are two problems here though. Let me elaborate:
1. The "recommendations": (This is just an example)
I am a new person wanting to get involved or just tweak my config in
guix/guile.
I go to the manual to learn package management,
https://guix.gnu.org/en/manual/devel/en/guix.html#Package-Management
Apparently i have to either use the terminal or something called emacs.
If I follow the guide located here:
https://emacs-guix.gitlab.io/website/manual/latest/emacs-guix.html#Installation
It says to install emacs-guix. Okay. So apparently it is an Emacs thing,
whatever that means. And when you start Emacs after installing the
package, you are going to end up with Emacs in its plain form.
Unfamiliar keybindings, no autocomplete, etc. Well thats no to Emacs
then. The other thing is the terminal apparently. Horrible, but at least
it works.
So what if I want to mess around with guile and the guix config directly?
If we check here it says to use something called Emacs again. So Im
guessing its the same Emacs that was also apparent in the previous step
with the config. but not there are more tools.
2. The contribute yourself your tools.
My point with all this is not to say its your fault or really anybody
specific. Its more to say that:
Recommendations in an abstract sense work fine. But not in the real
world. You proposed:
> If it's not helpful to you, you are free to select your own tool box
and share how it works (via patches to the contributing section or a
blog post for example). are free to select your own tool box and share
how it works (via patches to the contributing section or a blog post for
example).
How many people actually have the time and energy and know-how to do
this? In the original email it was about a mother who on her spare time
contributes to guix. Or as another example it could be about a person
that just starts programming. Or it could be about a person that works
and has few spare time.
Of course I saw in an email earlier in the thread that: "If you don't
have time (as I do) then don't contribute." Which at the very least i
find gross and not at all what guix is about.
Guix is supposed to be about equity. We are not all privileged (not
saying you are or anybody else in this thread is.) enough to have the
time and knowledge to learn Emacs, git-mail, find an email client that
works (still havent found one. previous email was with the wrong email
and threads are a nightmare.), and set up geiser and such.
The reason I have come to guix is because it strives to actually make it
easier for people to change things. with guix shell and such. So making
it easier for people to contribute is absolutely a part of it. Im not
saying we should force every volunteer of course to do "work". What I am
saying is:
- Guix recommendations in the manual, in the cookbook and other places,
carry weight. In the sense that if to use something else than Emacs i
have to write my own scripts or go to some random tutorial in a search
engine then we have effectively pushed Emacs as the main guix platform.
For better or worse. And we have excluded a portion of contributors.
Same with email, debbugs. What can solve this is effort to actually
include people.
Visual Code as you mentioned or any other editor, or mumi, these are all
efforts to get contributors in the first place. The contributors will
never come and create the infra and tooling they want by themselves. It
takes some initial effort on our part to lower the barrier and
"cognitive overhead" as in the title to actually encourage people to
contribute. Same way that women or other minorities dont just "show up"
to change the culture to make the welcome. they would rather go where
they are already welcome.
Not to make this too long i strongly disagree that "Create your own
toolbox" is a barrier we should have for new users. And recommendations
carry weight because its what people see the community putting effort
into and using.
Some proposals/good directions that we already have not to leave this
with just complaining is:
- Improve guile studio and add it as a recommendation. With an improve
UI and keybindings for it.
- Improve the docs of course.
- add more editors maybe(?) by ourselves.
This is for the starting to change guix/guile code that is. For people
wanting to use code there is others. As there is for actually committing
being discussed elsewhere for improvements.
Yes I want to help on all of them at some point :)
MSavoritias
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2023-09-17 12:06 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 267+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2023-08-23 16:25 How can we decrease the cognitive overhead for contributors? Katherine Cox-Buday
2023-08-23 17:27 ` Felix Lechner via Development of GNU Guix and the GNU System distribution.
2023-08-23 18:03 ` Andreas Enge
2023-08-25 8:07 ` Attila Lendvai
2023-08-25 9:16 ` Andreas Enge
2023-08-25 9:57 ` Attila Lendvai
2023-08-25 23:56 ` Katherine Cox-Buday
2023-08-25 14:44 ` Wilko Meyer
2023-08-26 14:37 ` Liliana Marie Prikler
2023-08-27 12:07 ` Attila Lendvai
2023-08-27 13:57 ` Saku Laesvuori
2023-08-27 17:08 ` Liliana Marie Prikler
2023-08-29 10:04 ` MSavoritias
2023-08-29 11:05 ` Giovanni Biscuolo
2023-09-05 15:33 ` Simon Tournier
2023-09-05 19:16 ` Csepp
2023-09-05 20:43 ` Simon Tournier
2023-08-29 3:00 ` Maxim Cournoyer
2023-09-05 16:01 ` Simon Tournier
2023-09-05 17:01 ` Katherine Cox-Buday
2023-09-05 18:18 ` Liliana Marie Prikler
2023-09-05 18:40 ` (
2023-09-05 20:43 ` Liliana Marie Prikler
2023-09-05 22:04 ` wolf
2023-09-06 18:42 ` Liliana Marie Prikler
2023-09-08 15:39 ` Ricardo Wurmus
2023-09-08 22:56 ` Liliana Marie Prikler
2023-09-06 9:41 ` Josselin Poiret
2023-09-08 14:20 ` Ricardo Wurmus
2023-09-10 9:35 ` Efraim Flashner
2023-09-11 10:34 ` Giovanni Biscuolo
2023-09-06 20:10 ` Wojtek Kosior via Development of GNU Guix and the GNU System distribution.
2023-09-17 8:01 ` MSavoritias
2023-09-07 20:38 ` Katherine Cox-Buday
2023-09-07 20:52 ` Felix Lechner via Development of GNU Guix and the GNU System distribution.
2023-09-17 8:07 ` MSavoritias
2023-09-05 23:41 ` brian via Development of GNU Guix and the GNU System distribution.
2023-09-06 16:53 ` Liliana Marie Prikler
2023-09-06 17:52 ` Vagrant Cascadian
2023-09-06 18:27 ` Maxim Cournoyer
2023-09-06 18:49 ` Christopher Baines
2023-09-08 9:16 ` Giovanni Biscuolo
2023-09-08 16:56 ` Liliana Marie Prikler
2023-09-06 19:11 ` Liliana Marie Prikler
2023-09-05 22:57 ` Simon Tournier
2023-09-06 2:34 ` Katherine Cox-Buday
2023-09-06 9:07 ` Simon Tournier
2023-09-07 20:39 ` Katherine Cox-Buday
2023-09-09 12:32 ` Simon Tournier
2023-09-11 12:19 ` Giovanni Biscuolo
2023-09-12 15:35 ` Katherine Cox-Buday
2023-09-12 15:35 ` Katherine Cox-Buday
2023-09-09 17:14 ` Liliana Marie Prikler
2023-09-11 12:37 ` Giovanni Biscuolo
2023-09-11 21:25 ` Csepp
2023-09-12 9:09 ` Giovanni Biscuolo
2023-09-12 11:09 ` Csepp
2023-09-12 14:51 ` Maxim Cournoyer
2023-09-17 12:39 ` MSavoritias
2023-09-08 10:25 ` Giovanni Biscuolo
2023-09-06 19:01 ` Liliana Marie Prikler
2023-09-08 9:53 ` Giovanni Biscuolo
2023-09-08 11:28 ` Ricardo Wurmus
2023-09-08 12:40 ` Giovanni Biscuolo
2023-09-12 16:05 ` Katherine Cox-Buday
2023-09-12 16:05 ` Katherine Cox-Buday
2023-09-13 7:57 ` Simon Tournier
2023-09-13 9:28 ` Simon Tournier
2023-09-12 16:08 ` Katherine Cox-Buday
2023-09-12 16:08 ` Katherine Cox-Buday
2023-09-08 12:09 ` Efraim Flashner
2023-09-08 16:54 ` Giovanni Biscuolo
2023-09-06 2:49 ` Maxim Cournoyer
2023-09-06 22:16 ` kiasoc5
2023-09-08 15:27 ` Ricardo Wurmus
2023-09-08 19:22 ` Liliana Marie Prikler
2023-09-08 20:37 ` Ricardo Wurmus
2023-09-12 16:18 ` Katherine Cox-Buday
2023-09-12 16:18 ` Katherine Cox-Buday
2023-09-09 10:01 ` Simon Tournier
2023-09-09 19:45 ` Ricardo Wurmus
2023-08-28 8:15 ` Giovanni Biscuolo
2023-08-28 17:00 ` Liliana Marie Prikler
2023-08-30 7:37 ` Giovanni Biscuolo
2023-08-29 9:29 ` MSavoritias
2023-08-29 19:29 ` Liliana Marie Prikler
2023-09-08 14:44 ` Ricardo Wurmus
2023-09-08 18:50 ` Liliana Marie Prikler
2023-09-08 20:24 ` Ricardo Wurmus
2023-09-08 23:26 ` Liliana Marie Prikler
2023-09-09 19:40 ` Ricardo Wurmus
2023-09-09 22:20 ` Liliana Marie Prikler
2023-09-11 10:36 ` Simon Tournier
2023-09-11 17:53 ` Liliana Marie Prikler
2023-09-11 18:50 ` Simon Tournier
2023-09-12 14:42 ` Maxim Cournoyer
2023-09-12 16:57 ` Simon Tournier
2023-09-13 15:31 ` to PR or not to PR, is /that/ the question? Giovanni Biscuolo
2023-09-13 22:02 ` Simon Tournier
2023-09-14 6:53 ` Giovanni Biscuolo
2023-09-14 7:30 ` Simon Tournier
2023-09-17 16:20 ` How can we decrease the cognitive overhead for contributors? MSavoritias
2023-09-17 16:35 ` Liliana Marie Prikler
2023-09-18 9:37 ` Simon Tournier
2023-09-18 16:35 ` MSavoritias
2023-09-18 17:13 ` Simon Tournier
2023-09-18 17:39 ` MSavoritias
2023-09-18 19:20 ` Simon Tournier
2023-09-18 20:28 ` Felix Lechner via Development of GNU Guix and the GNU System distribution.
2023-09-18 19:47 ` Liliana Marie Prikler
2023-09-17 15:50 ` MSavoritias
2023-08-25 23:48 ` Katherine Cox-Buday
2023-08-27 8:35 ` Josselin Poiret
2023-08-25 23:31 ` Katherine Cox-Buday
2023-08-23 20:48 ` Liliana Marie Prikler
2023-08-25 9:03 ` Attila Lendvai
2023-08-27 3:27 ` Maxim Cournoyer
2023-09-02 22:11 ` Ricardo Wurmus
2023-09-03 1:05 ` Vagrant Cascadian
2023-09-04 8:56 ` Ricardo Wurmus
2023-09-04 15:10 ` Efraim Flashner
2023-09-05 2:18 ` Maxim Cournoyer
2023-09-05 7:21 ` Replacing Mumi+Debbugs? Ricardo Wurmus
2023-09-05 13:12 ` How can we decrease the cognitive overhead for contributors? Csepp
2023-09-05 20:30 ` Wilko Meyer
2023-08-23 22:04 ` Ricardo Wurmus
2023-08-23 22:37 ` Jack Hill
2023-08-24 0:18 ` Csepp
2023-08-25 0:10 ` Ekaitz Zarraga
2023-08-26 0:16 ` Katherine Cox-Buday
2023-08-28 21:46 ` paul
2023-08-26 0:06 ` Katherine Cox-Buday
2023-08-27 3:00 ` Maxim Cournoyer
2023-08-27 8:37 ` Josselin Poiret
2023-08-28 9:44 ` Giovanni Biscuolo
2023-08-27 2:50 ` Maxim Cournoyer
2023-08-29 22:40 ` Csepp
2023-08-30 2:46 ` Maxim Cournoyer
2023-08-28 8:52 ` Simon Tournier
2023-08-24 3:33 ` Ahmed Khanzada via Development of GNU Guix and the GNU System distribution.
2023-08-26 0:25 ` Katherine Cox-Buday
2023-08-24 6:33 ` (
2023-08-26 0:39 ` Katherine Cox-Buday
2023-08-27 3:22 ` Maxim Cournoyer
2023-08-27 7:39 ` 宋文武
2023-08-28 11:42 ` Giovanni Biscuolo
2023-09-01 19:12 ` Imran Iqbal
2023-09-03 17:45 ` Ekaitz Zarraga
2023-09-03 21:05 ` indieterminacy
2023-09-03 21:16 ` Ekaitz Zarraga
2023-09-13 12:20 ` Fannys
2023-09-13 15:42 ` Maxim Cournoyer
2023-09-13 23:13 ` Ekaitz Zarraga
2023-09-17 11:29 ` MSavoritias [this message]
2023-09-18 10:09 ` Simon Tournier
2023-09-19 10:33 ` contribute with content in our official help pages? Giovanni Biscuolo
2023-09-19 16:35 ` The elephant in the room and the Guix Bang Giovanni Biscuolo
2023-09-19 20:41 ` Simon Tournier
2023-09-20 20:52 ` Giovanni Biscuolo
2023-09-20 8:21 ` Csepp
2023-09-20 8:45 ` The e(macs)lephant " Nguyễn Gia Phong via Development of GNU Guix and the GNU System distribution.
2023-09-20 9:28 ` MSavoritias
2023-09-20 14:03 ` Ricardo Wurmus
2023-09-20 14:09 ` MSavoritias
2023-09-14 8:24 ` How can we decrease the cognitive overhead for contributors? Ricardo Wurmus
2023-09-18 16:40 ` MSavoritias
2023-09-14 17:49 ` Sarthak Shah
2023-09-15 10:18 ` Simon Tournier
2023-09-13 12:25 ` MSavoritias
2023-09-22 15:14 ` Imran Iqbal
2023-09-22 15:30 ` Katherine Cox-Buday
2023-09-22 16:17 ` Ekaitz Zarraga
2023-09-22 16:35 ` MSavoritias
2023-09-22 17:28 ` Ekaitz Zarraga
2023-09-25 15:13 ` Enabling contribution through documentation Samuel Christie via Development of GNU Guix and the GNU System distribution.
2023-10-16 20:18 ` Matt
2023-11-06 22:43 ` Samuel Christie via Development of GNU Guix and the GNU System distribution.
2023-11-11 1:14 ` Matt
2023-08-28 6:12 ` How can we decrease the cognitive overhead for contributors? (
2023-08-28 9:14 ` Simon Tournier
2023-08-29 9:53 ` MSavoritias
2023-09-05 7:54 ` Simon Tournier
2023-09-13 12:59 ` MSavoritias
2023-09-14 8:18 ` Ricardo Wurmus
2023-08-26 17:40 ` kiasoc5
2023-08-24 9:06 ` Wilko Meyer
2023-08-25 9:31 ` Attila Lendvai
2023-08-26 17:42 ` kiasoc5
2023-08-26 18:53 ` Liliana Marie Prikler
2023-08-26 21:35 ` Attila Lendvai
2023-08-27 8:26 ` Non-committer comments on patches Andreas Enge
2023-08-28 6:17 ` How can we decrease the cognitive overhead for contributors? (
2023-08-28 10:01 ` Simon Tournier
2023-08-28 9:26 ` Simon Tournier
2023-08-24 18:53 ` Simon Tournier
2023-08-26 1:02 ` Katherine Cox-Buday
2023-08-28 10:17 ` Simon Tournier
2023-08-30 16:11 ` Katherine Cox-Buday
2023-08-30 16:53 ` Andreas Enge
2023-08-30 19:02 ` MSavoritias
2023-09-02 11:16 ` Giovanni Biscuolo
2023-09-02 13:48 ` paul
2023-09-02 19:08 ` Csepp
2023-09-02 20:23 ` wolf
2023-09-02 23:08 ` Csepp
2023-09-04 10:23 ` Attila Lendvai
2023-09-04 12:44 ` brian via Development of GNU Guix and the GNU System distribution.
2023-09-04 14:35 ` Attila Lendvai
2023-09-04 18:13 ` Andreas Enge
2023-09-05 9:58 ` pinoaffe
2023-09-05 14:22 ` brian via Development of GNU Guix and the GNU System distribution.
2023-09-05 15:25 ` Maxim Cournoyer
2023-09-05 13:19 ` Csepp
2023-09-05 15:30 ` Maxim Cournoyer
2023-09-05 19:08 ` Csepp
2023-09-06 12:14 ` Attila Lendvai
2023-09-06 12:56 ` Ekaitz Zarraga
2023-09-06 16:03 ` Maxim Cournoyer
2023-09-04 19:16 ` phil
2023-09-04 18:22 ` Andreas Enge
2023-09-02 16:08 ` Csepp
2023-09-02 18:27 ` Mumi search broken? (was: Re: How can we decrease the cognitive overhead for contributors?) Liliana Marie Prikler
2023-09-03 7:36 ` How can we decrease the cognitive overhead for contributors? Ricardo Wurmus
2023-09-03 8:53 ` paul
2023-09-03 10:31 ` Ricardo Wurmus
2023-09-03 14:53 ` Felix Lechner via Development of GNU Guix and the GNU System distribution.
2023-09-04 9:40 ` Giovanni Biscuolo
2023-09-03 18:18 ` Csepp
2023-09-03 20:32 ` Ricardo Wurmus
2023-09-05 8:43 ` Simon Tournier
2023-09-05 18:04 ` Katherine Cox-Buday
2023-09-05 19:15 ` Katherine Cox-Buday
2023-09-13 13:24 ` MSavoritias
2023-09-05 1:32 ` Maxim Cournoyer
2023-09-05 17:19 ` Katherine Cox-Buday
2023-09-05 14:01 ` Simon Tournier
2023-09-05 18:00 ` Katherine Cox-Buday
2023-09-05 20:39 ` Guix User Survey? Wilko Meyer
2023-09-05 23:55 ` How can we decrease the cognitive overhead for contributors? Simon Tournier
2023-09-06 2:58 ` Katherine Cox-Buday
2023-09-06 9:34 ` Next action, survey? Simon Tournier
2023-09-07 20:39 ` Katherine Cox-Buday
2023-09-08 6:31 ` How can we decrease the cognitive overhead for contributors? (
2023-09-05 22:11 ` wolf
2023-09-05 23:02 ` Simon Tournier
2023-09-13 13:59 ` MSavoritias
2023-08-28 21:41 ` paul
2023-08-29 8:32 ` Giovanni Biscuolo
2023-08-29 9:31 ` Giovanni Biscuolo
2023-08-29 11:28 ` git interfaces (was Re: How can we decrease the cognitive overhead for contributors?) Giovanni Biscuolo
2023-08-29 23:11 ` How can we decrease the cognitive overhead for contributors? Csepp
2023-08-30 8:39 ` Attila Lendvai
2023-08-30 9:33 ` Andreas Enge
2023-08-30 0:22 ` Danny Milosavljevic
2023-08-30 9:41 ` Andreas Enge
2023-08-30 12:33 ` commit message helpers (was Re: How can we decrease the cognitive overhead for contributors?) Giovanni Biscuolo
2023-09-04 13:36 ` How can we decrease the cognitive overhead for contributors? Ricardo Wurmus
2023-09-05 3:25 ` Maxim Cournoyer
2023-09-05 7:48 ` Ricardo Wurmus
2023-09-04 11:09 ` David Larsson
2023-09-04 22:06 ` Mumi CLI client (was: How can we decrease the cognitive overhead for contributors?) Arun Isaac
2023-09-05 8:58 ` Debbugs CLI client (was Re: Mumi CLI client (was: How can we decrease the cognitive overhead for contributors?))) Simon Tournier
2023-09-05 10:37 ` Mumi CLI client (was: How can we decrease the cognitive overhead for contributors?) Giovanni Biscuolo
2023-09-08 16:49 ` Ricardo Wurmus
2023-09-12 14:55 ` Giovanni Biscuolo
2023-09-13 8:52 ` Ricardo Wurmus
2023-09-13 10:26 ` Commenting bug reports via mumi web interface " Giovanni Biscuolo
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