Re: Reviving Emacs-Guix

[zimoun <zimon.toutoune@gmail.com>]

Hi Pierre,

I do not understand your arguments.  Even re-reading all the thread.

On one hand you are saying that Geiser is the issue of Emacs-Guix.  You
raise issue with build (which ’guix-popup’ does not do).  And issues
about Geiser proper, compared to SLY or SLIME, and Geiser allows to work
interactively (*Guix REPL*).

On the other hand, you say that « pipe to “guix repl” » would not tackle
the issues you raise about interactive-ness.


> To answer all your points: `guix repl` woud only be used for queries,
> not for transactions.

AFAIU, guix-popup already does that.

The annoyance that popups time to time are not related to Geiser but
related the low-maintenance mode.  IMHO.


> For the latter, sending shell crafted commands have worked well for me.
> They can be sent to an M-x shell, Vterm or Eshell buffer.
>
> Example: the user wants to build Emacs?
> Make a dedicated "M-x shell" buffer and send "guix build emacs" there.

Euh?  You can do the same with anything.  Simply use something else.
I do not understand.


>> I do not understand your point.  You are mixing 2 topics:
>>
>>  - Emacs front-end for Guix
>>  - Scheme mode for Emacs
>
> I don't want to mix the 2, emacs-guix does.
>
> I'm suggesting precisely this: don't mix up the Schemer environment with
> emacs-guix because of the load of trouble it brings in.
>
>> and then applying kind of transitivity: Geiser is poor (compared to
>> SLIME or SLY) so it cannot be used for Guix at all.  Applying the same
>> trick: the number of packages in Guix is poor (compared to Debian or
>> Nix) so Guix cannot be used at all.
>
> This is not what I'm saying ;)

What are the issues of Geiser that are blocking in guix-popup?


>> For example, persistence between 2
>> calls.
>
> emacs-guix never relies on persistence if I'm not mistaken.

M-x guix-switch-to-repl


> My suggestion indeed lacks persistence, but at least it works for now
> until we figure out something better.

Now you convinced me that Emacs-Guix needs love.  Well the “it works” in
« at least it works for now » is meaningless for me so instead I am
going to report what Emacs-Guix fails and what I would like to have.  It
will be more fruitful. ;-)


>> And solving that is somehow inheriting from ’comint-mode’ and so
>> more less rewrite ’geiser-repl.el’; but Guix specific only.  Maybe I am
>> missing the obvious.
>
> Sorry I didn't get this part.

You are taking the part that more or less works in Emacs-Guix and want
to replace it.  And the other part which is more broken, you remove it.


>> Maybe «pipe to “guix repl”» could simplify what “guix-popup” does.
>> Even, I am not convinced.
>
> Not just that, but listing packages, package details, output listing,
> profile listing, generation listing, etc.

I do not know which version of Emacs-Guix you are using but all that is
already available.  For example,

   M-x guix-popup p L bro RET C-s ny RET RET
   M-x guix-popup p N yxt$ RET
   M-x guix-popup P a
   M-x guix-popop P a
   M-x guix-popop P l 2 RET

etc.  And it works!

There is still room of improvements, though. :-)
And others are broken, for instance:

   M-x guix-popup c
   

> Try it out in Nyxt, you'll see for yourself :)

You know that I am trying Nyxt time to time. :-)

However, I am not convinced that on your side you are trying Emacs-Guix
to see for yourself. ;-)


>> Today, the real issue with Emacs-Guix is not Geiser, at all.
>
> Emacs-Guix can't install a package a package that needs to be built
> because of Geiser.  So yes, Geiser is the issue.

The dirty-fix in the kind of “guix repl” fashion is easy: run
“(guix-build args)” and expose the output in a specific buffer.
Whatever.


Thank you for sharing your views.  Now I am convinced that Emacs-Guix
needs love. :-)

Cheers,
simon