Re: [PATCH 2/4] emacs: Add 'guix-devel-download-package-source'.

[ludo@gnu.org (Ludovic Courtès)]

Alex Kost <alezost@gmail.com> skribis:

> Ludovic Courtès (2015-10-07 15:23 +0300) wrote:
>
>> Alex Kost <alezost@gmail.com> skribis:
>>
> [...]
>>> I don't see a problem here, since a fake sha256 may be any string, 
>>
>> Not really, since ‘base32’ is a macro that checks its argument at
>> expansion time.  So in practice one cannot C-M-x a package with a random
>> base32 string.
>
> Ah, indeed, it can't be any string, but it can be an empty string
> (perhaps it's a bug in ‘base32’?)

Oh right.  It’s not really a bug, since the empty string is a valid
base32 representation of the empty bytevector.

>>> for example "" (an empty string).  Also I believe people begin to
>>> write a new package from some template, so you have a working skeleton
>>> of future package with all required fields from the very beginning.
>>> Then after filling an origin 'uri', you could "C-c . s" to download
>>> the source and get its hash.
>>
>> Hmm.  I’m skeptical.  :-)
>
> Sorry, I didn't get it.  Skeptical that people start from a template?

Yes, it feels weird to me, the idea that an <origin> object with bogus
values would be created just for the sake of satisfying the download
tool.

Wouldn’t the explanation in the manual of how to use this be relatively
complex?  That’s a good benchmark.

>> What about, instead, providing an interactive function that would prompt
>> for a URL, run ‘guix download’ on that, and emit an ‘origin’ template at
>> point with all the info?
>
> I see several problems here, but the main is: this sounds like it should
> be synchronous: you give an URL, wait until the source is downloaded and
> finally get the template at point.  But downloading can take a VERY long
> time, so I don't think it will be a usable command.

Good point.  But there’s the same problem with what you propose no?  The
user somehow has to wait for the download to complete?

>> (Him or her.)
>
> Yes, I just always say/write "he", "him", etc.

Yeah, but I think it’s best to try and avoid this language bias (see
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender-neutral_language>.)  We want to
welcome all human beings to our Guix party, don’t we?  :-)

Thanks,
Ludo’.