Re: Prototype for using Guix with python packages

[ludo@gnu.org (Ludovic Courtès)]

Hi,

Christopher Baines <mail@cbaines.net> skribis:

> All of this is still very uncertain in my mind, in particular, I see
> Guix as a viable alternative to lots of domain specific package
> managers, which I would really like to avoid when writing software (e.g.
> pip, npm gem) but I'm not certain that being a viable alternative to
> these tools is within the project scope?

Yes and no.  Clearly how NPM and, to a lesser extent, PyPI approach
packaging is very different from how Debian or Guix approach it.

They tend to be very large repos with little or no review, and little
consideration for computing freedom in the case of NPM; they tend to be
mostly automated things that move very fast.

As discussed in another thread, maybe what we can do is provide “core”
packages in Guix proper.  There could be auto-importers for the rest,
but users would have to trust those other repos, which isn’t great.

Then again, importing and maintaining PyPI packages (with the help of
‘guix import’ and ‘guix refresh’) sounds more reasonable than importing
and maintaining NPM stuff.

> The other main uncertainty in my mind is whether the approach I have
> been trying is the best one? I'm getting more confident that this is
> possible, although there are still technical problems (for example,
> adding new versions, without breaking existing versions of other
> packages) that I haven't solved yet.

I think there’s no definite answer; we’ll probably have to explore
different possibilities.

Ludo’.