Re: Etymology of derivation

[Vagrant Cascadian <vagrant@debian.org>]

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On 2020-11-02, Arun Isaac wrote:
> I am translating Guix to the Tamil language. Tamil doesn't yet have a
> very standardized technical vocabulary, and I mostly coin terms on my
> own. Most often, I construct calques of existing English words, and it
> sounds alright. But, I'm having trouble with the word "derivation" (as
> in Guix's low-level build actions). I haven't seen the word "derivation"
> used anywhere outside of Guix. Why is a "low-level build action" called
> a "derivation"? If someone could clarify the etymology, it might really
> help with good translation.

From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]:

  derivation
      n 1: the source or origin from which something derives (i.e.
           comes or issues); "he prefers shoes of Italian derivation";
           "music of Turkish derivation"
...
      8: the act of deriving something or obtaining something from a
         source or origin

Seems like a some subtle variation of definitions 1 and 8, according to
wordnet. Closer to 8, really, so I'd say ...

The guix derivations are the result of processing or using (the act)
inputs (sources and origins) to produce an output (the derivation
itself).


I would guess the original Nix publication also explains the use of this
term?

  https://web.archive.org/web/20190421081837/https://nixos.org/~eelco/pubs/iscsd-scm11-final.pdf
  https://web.archive.org/web/20190609111633/https://nixos.org/~eelco/pubs/phd-thesis.pdf


live well,
  vagrant

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