From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: John Soo Subject: Re: Parameterized packages Date: Sat, 25 Jan 2020 10:52:36 -0800 Message-ID: <839BF535-B4F4-4AB3-8CCB-FB16322EE434@asu.edu> References: Mime-Version: 1.0 (1.0) Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Return-path: Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:470:142:3::10]:32777) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1ivQXx-0003vL-1c for guix-devel@gnu.org; Sat, 25 Jan 2020 13:52:42 -0500 Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1ivQXv-0004I6-3T for guix-devel@gnu.org; Sat, 25 Jan 2020 13:52:39 -0500 Received: from mail-ot1-x333.google.com ([2607:f8b0:4864:20::333]:45616) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.0:RSA_AES_128_CBC_SHA1:16) (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1ivQXu-0004FL-Le for guix-devel@gnu.org; Sat, 25 Jan 2020 13:52:39 -0500 Received: by mail-ot1-x333.google.com with SMTP id 59so4746004otp.12 for ; Sat, 25 Jan 2020 10:52:38 -0800 (PST) In-Reply-To: List-Id: "Development of GNU Guix and the GNU System distribution." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: guix-devel-bounces+gcggd-guix-devel=m.gmane-mx.org@gnu.org Sender: "Guix-devel" To: zimoun Cc: Guix Devel Hey all! I=E2=80=99ve been following very roughly. I have a couple issues with parame= terized packages.=20 > On Jan 22, 2020, at 4:24 AM, zimoun wrote: >=20 > Well, I am wanting the same thing: be able to modify the 'arguments' > field but I am not convinced by the design you are proposing because I > have the feeling that with such design then mess is coming. :-) The maintenance and complexity does worry me. Introducing more complexity may also make it harder to hack on guix itself. I= love the hack ability of guix. (I correct me if I=E2=80=99m wrong, but isn=E2= =80=99t hack ability a core design goal of the project?) The other worry is that command line flags are close to another way of codin= g package modifications in guile. Maybe it can be more scriptable but I do w= ant the guile code itself to continue to be the nice and fun place it is to w= ork on. I=E2=80=99d rather flags not be a replacement for scheme. So to sum up: not only could command line parameters potentially make it har= der to work on guix code it might disincentivize actually doing any hacking.= I think there could be very nice ways of implementing flags that improve g= uix overall. I jut want to keep in mind the design goals of the project.=20 - John