Re: Erlang + Emacs profile

[Maxim Cournoyer <maxim.cournoyer@gmail.com>]

Hello,

Zelphir Kaltstahl <zelphirkaltstahl@posteo.de> writes:

> Hi Maxim!
>
> Thanks for your message! I'll try it out. It implies some things I'd
> rather not do though:
>
> * It requires keeping multiple Emacs on my system. How will they
> interact with the same ~/.emacs.d/.init.el?

Badly, unless you've carefully crafted .init.el to load modules only
when they're present (it's doable, and some packages even aim to
simplify this kind of thing).

Otherwise you'd have to launch emacs with the -q switch to prevent
reading your main ~/.emacs.el (or .init.el).

> * This approach seems to install everything only temporary, reinstalling
> every single time. But I can use a profile, so that's fine.

Yes, you can change the 'guix environment -m' command for a 'guix
package -m' one for a persistent result (or use the -r option of 'guix
environment').

> How did you package emacs-ob-erlang? (I did not yet package a single
> package for Guix, so I assume no prior knowledge.)

'guix edit emacs-ob-erlang' should bring you right to the definition of
the package.

> Or is it a rather
> lengthy procedure to do so?

No, it probably took me less than 15 minutes total; it was a small and
straightforward package.  The emacs-build-system is remarkably simple.

> I learn about Guix, which is very useful, because if a package is
> missing, one can add it oneself, without having to rely on others to add it.

Yes, that's one of my favorite things about Guix. It's hackable.

> It's an OK-ish solution to simply modify my PATH to make ob-erlang find
> erl, however, I was hoping for a configuration value in ob-emacs itself,
> so that I can set everything inside that plugin.

Such as configuration would need to be possible in ob-erlang, but it's
not [0].  You could define a bunch of defvars and contribute a patch
upstream, if you are so inclined.

> I usually install Emacs packages inside Emacs, instead of using Guix for
> it. I do this, because probably not all packages I want are available in
> Guix, but I have not checked this assumption at all.

The collection is growing, and as mentioned earlier, it's rather easy to
add new items to it :-). Managing everything the same way makes for a
better experience in my opinion (isn't that what Guix is about? :-)).

> I think I'll be fine with adapting my PATH for now, just need to do it
> in a way, that will keep working when I update Guix packages.

Note that you could also choose to install erlang in your main profile
along Emacs and emacs-ob-erlang; that'd remove the need to mess with
PATH.

Maxim