From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
From: Ricardo Wurmus <rekado@elephly.net>
Subject: bug#15284: wish: make the (name) field optional
Date: Thu, 16 Apr 2020 23:53:33 +0200
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References: <8761ueqq09.wl%arne_bab@web.de>
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To: 15284-done@debbugs.gnu.org

I agree with Ludo and Andreas that we better shouldn=E2=80=99t make the
name field optional.

That said, I just pushed a series of patches that happens to address
this wishlist item in a very roundabout way.  It is now possible to
build packages from JSON files like this:

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
[
  {
    "name": "myhello",
    "version": "2.10",
    "source": "mirror://gnu/hello/hello-2.10.tar.gz",
    "build-system": "gnu",
    "arguments": {
      "tests?": false
    }
    "home-page": "https://www.gnu.org/software/hello/",
    "synopsis": "Hello, GNU world: An example GNU package",
    "description": "GNU Hello prints a greeting.",
    "license": "GPL-3.0+",
    "native-inputs": ["gettext"]
  },
  {
    "name": "greeter",
    "version": "1.0",
    "source": "https://example.com/greeter-1.0.tar.gz",
    "build-system": "gnu",
    "arguments": {
      "test-target": "foo",
      "parallel-build?": false,
    },
    "home-page": "https://example.com/",
    "synopsis": "Greeter using GNU Hello",
    "description": "This is a wrapper around GNU Hello.",
    "license": "GPL-3.0+",
    "inputs": ["myhello", "hello"]
  }
]
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

As you can see, there is no variable assignment, because this is JSON.
The =E2=80=9Cname=E2=80=9D field is the only identifier, and its value can =
be used as an
input in other packages (see the reference to =E2=80=9Cmyhello=E2=80=9D in =
the =E2=80=9Cgreeter=E2=80=9D
package definition).

It=E2=80=99s really only tangentially related to what this issue is about, =
but
it=E2=80=99s as close as we can get to duplication-free syntax =E2=80=94 ev=
en though
it=E2=80=99s JSON and not Scheme.  Look, there are also no labels for input=
s!
Because there are no custom phases either=E2=80=A6

--
Ricardo