Add "tags" field to package record?

Add "tags" field to package record?

[Pierre Neidhardt]

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Hi Guix,

What about adding an optional "tags" field to the package record?

Tags would be arbitrary (e.g. "editor", "video", "music", etc.) and
useful for package exploration, both from commandline and guix.el I
suppose.

I think it's pretty much all that's missing to completely supersede
reference pages like
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/List_of_applications.

Since it's optional, it would be backward compatible with the current
package declarations.

Insights?

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

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Re: Add "tags" field to package record?

[Hartmut Goebel]

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Am 18.09.2018 um 12:42 schrieb Pierre Neidhardt:
> What about adding an optional "tags" field to the package record?

Some packages already provide these via the "properties" field, e.g.:

    (properties `((tags . '("Desktop/KDE" "Utilities"))))

(At least this was common, when I created the template for KDE
applications. maybe tis is outdated in the meanwhile.)

-- 
Regards
Hartmut Goebel

| Hartmut Goebel          | h.goebel@crazy-compilers.com               |
| www.crazy-compilers.com | compilers which you thought are impossible |



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Re: Add "tags" field to package record?

[Pierre Neidhardt]

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Interesting.  I had never seen this this far.

What does the tags property do?  Is it supported by any tool?

I just had a look at the manual and it seems that the "properties" field is
undocumented.

I ran into it with CVE, and I see it's also used for things such as specifying
the upstream name.

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

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Re: Add "tags" field to package record?

[Pjotr Prins]

On Tue, Sep 18, 2018 at 12:42:07PM +0200, Pierre Neidhardt wrote:
> Hi Guix,
> 
> What about adding an optional "tags" field to the package record?
> 
> Tags would be arbitrary (e.g. "editor", "video", "music", etc.) and
> useful for package exploration, both from commandline and guix.el I
> suppose.

This is also an old discussion, see the archives ;)

This is meta-data that arguably can be outside the package tree. I
would encourage developing such a database, ideally using wikidata or
similar.

Pj.

Re: Add "tags" field to package record?

[Ludovic Courtès]

Hello Pierre,

Pierre Neidhardt <mail@ambrevar.xyz> skribis:

> What about adding an optional "tags" field to the package record?
>
> Tags would be arbitrary (e.g. "editor", "video", "music", etc.) and
> useful for package exploration, both from commandline and guix.el I
> suppose.

I have mixed feelings about this.  On one hand it seems like The Right
Thing (I was very enthusiastic about debtags back in the day), but OTOH,
people don’t seem to use anything beyond plain search boxes and ‘grep’.

I think I would rather have us improve “guix package --search” to the
point that it provides results people are happy with.

Hartmut Goebel <h.goebel@crazy-compilers.com> skribis:

> Some packages already provide these via the "properties" field, e.g.:
>
>     (properties `((tags . '("Desktop/KDE" "Utilities"))))

I agree it would probably be the right way to do it.  This particular
example is not in ‘master’ though, is it?

Thanks,
Ludo’.

Re: Add "tags" field to package record?

[Hartmut Goebel]

Am 22.09.2018 um 14:51 schrieb Ludovic Courtès:
> Hartmut Goebel <h.goebel@crazy-compilers.com> skribis:
>
>> Some packages already provide these via the "properties" field, e.g.:
>>
>>     (properties `((tags . '("Desktop/KDE" "Utilities"))))
> I agree it would probably be the right way to do it.  This particular
> example is not in ‘master’ though, is it?

You are right, this is not in master. It is on the unfinished KDE
applications branch [1] I created about 1 1/2 year ago. I copied it from
somewhere, but can't remember from where.

[1] gitlab.com/htgoebel/guix

-- 
Regards
Hartmut Goebel

| Hartmut Goebel          | h.goebel@crazy-compilers.com               |
| www.crazy-compilers.com | compilers which you thought are impossible |