Introducing Guix "Features"! (Was: Syntactic Diabetes)

[Felix Lechner via "Development of GNU Guix and the GNU System distribution." <guix-devel@gnu.org>]

On Thu, Nov 30 2023, Attila Lendvai wrote:

> the use of 'service' to describe two rather different abstractions: a
> component of an OS vs. a deamon process run by shepherd.

Indeed, the use of 'service' in much of Guix appears to be a grand
misnomer. It probably occurred because the meaning expanded over time.

It's like we are looking back in time at the Big Bang. Our "services"
are the microwave echoes of Guix's initial, creative spark!

Please consider a recent, helpful reply to help-guix. [1] Carlo
mentioned the term "service" eleven times, but none of them referred to
what I believe most readers of this message would call a service in
other contexts. What's a newbie on help-guix to think?

Should Guix services instead be called "features"?

Those "features" are central to any operating system definition. Other
choices like "provider" may not fully capture our collective uses
throughout the code and the documentation. I am especially thinking
about 'modify-features' and '%base-features'.

Kind regards
Felix

[1] https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/help-guix/2024-01/msg00213.html