Today I got tripped by some inconsistency in the syntax.  Observe:

- ~/.config/guix/channels.scm

     (list (channel
             (name 'guix)
             (url "https://example.org/my-guix.git")
             (branch "super-hacks")))

- /some/channel/with/deps/.guix-channel:

     (channel
      (version 0)
      (dependencies
       (channel
        (name some-collection)
        (url "https://example.org/first-collection.git"))
       (channel
        (name some-other-collection)
        (url "https://example.org/second-collection.git")
        (branch "testing"))))

(Those are examples taken from the manual.)

The former NAME field takes a quote while the latter does not.
In the latter, when adding a quote we get the not-so-helpful error:

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
guix/channels.scm:326:22: Throw to key `match-error' with args `("match" "no matching pattern" #f)'.
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

(Admittedly the backtrace gives a clue on what's happening, but still.)

I haven't looked at the code and I guess that .guix-channel is only
READ, not EVALed, while channels.scm is a first-class scheme code,
right?

Maybe we could match both 'SOME-NAME and SOME-NAME?

Thoughts?

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