Re: 16/16: doc: Discourage the use of texlive as input

Re: 16/16: doc: Discourage the use of texlive as input

[Ludovic Courtès]

Hi Pierre!

guix-commits@gnu.org skribis:

> commit dc56dc025df0b7ea6915ad1061f8d189d641fe35
> Author: Pierre Neidhardt <mail@ambrevar.xyz>
> Date:   Fri Dec 14 23:06:06 2018 +0100
>
>     doc: Discourage the use of texlive as input
>     
>     * doc/contributing.texi (Submitting Patches): Discourage the use of texlive as
>       input.
> ---
>  doc/contributing.texi | 10 ++++++++++
>  1 file changed, 10 insertions(+)
>
> diff --git a/doc/contributing.texi b/doc/contributing.texi
> index c55eb63..9f705d2 100644
> --- a/doc/contributing.texi
> +++ b/doc/contributing.texi
> @@ -477,6 +477,16 @@ often better to clone the repository.  Don't use the @command{name} field in
>  the URL: it is not very useful and if the name changes, the URL will probably
>  be wrong.
>  
> +@item
> +Try to minimize the weight of the inputs to make the transitive closure as
> +small as possible (@pxref{Invoking guix size}).  Use @command{native-inputs}
> +and @command{inputs} appropriately.  It's sometimes sufficient to use the
> +@command{-minimal} version of a package as input, e.g. @command{bash-minimal}
> +instead of @command{bash}.  In particular, avoid adding @command{texlive} as a
> +dependency: because of its extreme size, it's both heavy on the build farms
> +and on the users who would like to build or hack the package from source.  Use
> +@command{texlive-tiny} or @command{texlive-union} instead.

The text looks fine but I find it a bit long and more importantly it
partly duplicates an item that’s just above :-), which mentions ‘guix
size’ but not ‘texlive’.

So I’d rather not add this item because it shows that this section is
already too long to be read.

Perhaps a ‘lint’ checker warning about ‘texlive’ as an input would be
more appropriate?  WDYT?

In general I think it’s a good idea to discuss changes to the guidelines
beforehand, as per ‘HACKING’.

Anyway thanks for all the latest TeX Live improvements.  It’s great you
managed to replace all these ‘texlive’ dependencies with
‘texlive-union’!

Ludo’.

Re: 16/16: doc: Discourage the use of texlive as input

[Pierre Neidhardt]

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> The text looks fine but I find it a bit long and m

Yeah, it  can probably be worked out a bit :p

> more importantly it
> partly duplicates an item that’s just above :-), which mentions ‘guix
> size’ but not ‘texlive’.

Just above?  Do you mean this one:

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
Take a look at the profile reported by @command{guix size}
(@pxref{Invoking guix size}).  This will allow you to notice references
to other packages unwillingly retained.  It may also help determine
whether to split the package (@pxref{Packages with Multiple Outputs}),
and which optional dependencies should be used.
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

True, they should be merged, but in my opinion the existing paragraph is not
explicit enough about the size, despite mentioning the "guix size" command.

> Perhaps a ‘lint’ checker warning about ‘texlive’ as an input would be
> more appropriate?  WDYT?

Maybe, but we should keep in mind that we still don't have a proper texlive
build system, and it can be really hard to build a minimal texlive-union.  So if
someone cannot figure out the minimal union, then the linter will inevitably
flag the package.

> In general I think it’s a good idea to discuss changes to the guidelines
> beforehand, as per ‘HACKING’.

Yup, I went a bit out of my way here, sorry, long and painful day fighting
TeXlive...

Conclusion: I'll just add a mention of TeXlive in the existing paragraph then.

-- 
Pierre Neidhardt
https://ambrevar.xyz/

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Re: 16/16: doc: Discourage the use of texlive as input

[Ludovic Courtès]

Hello!

Pierre Neidhardt <mail@ambrevar.xyz> skribis:

> Yup, I went a bit out of my way here, sorry, long and painful day fighting
> TeXlive...

I can sympathize with that.  :-)

> Conclusion: I'll just add a mention of TeXlive in the existing paragraph then.

Perfect, thanks!  Final nitpick: for package name I’d rather use @code;
@command is for commands.

Ludo’.

Re: 16/16: doc: Discourage the use of texlive as input

[Pierre Neidhardt]

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Done.
(Oops, missing period in the commit message...  I guess I'm having a day off :p)

-- 
Pierre Neidhardt
https://ambrevar.xyz/

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