Planet of Guix-related posts?

[zimoun <zimon.toutoune@gmail.com>]

Hi,

My two points are:

 1. we could have a Guix planet -- we should avoid the cathedral for
quick recipes
 2. too many different goals are directed to the Cookbook


Well, my point is: instead of cathedral with an authority accepting
patches after review, why not a web syndication (bazaar) as a Planet
collecting various blogs.  This would help to stay aware.  For
instance, I read,

https://planet.haskell.org/
https://ocaml.org/community/planet/
https://planet.emacslife.com/
https://planet.scheme.org/

and many others and for Guix-related, basically, I use Ludo's toots as
such Planet.  Thanks Ludo. ;-)

Bah, I do not know if many blogs about Guix are around and how
frequently they would be updated.

Similarly, some time ago, an "awesome list" had been started and now,
quickly searching, I find 2:

https://github.com/techenthusiastsorg/awesome-guix
https://sr.ht/~lle-bout/awesome-guix/

Therefore, doing so...

On Sat, 8 Jan 2022 at 17:25, Matt <matt@excalamus.com> wrote:

> I have two documents written in Org:
> 1. http://excalamus.com/test-guix-case-study-plover-python-dictionary.html

(On a side note between parenthesis, we should avoid to fall into the
"Package Definition" tutorial fallacy; as explained here for monads
https://byorgey.wordpress.com/2009/01/12/abstraction-intuition-and-the-monad-tutorial-fallacy/.
And I wrote one post about monad and another about Packaging. ;-)
However, I think the official documentation has enough materials for
starting to package. End of parenthesis.)


> 2. http://excalamus.com/2021-10-06-guix-debug.html

...it is possible to individually write using our preferred tools and
managed our way.

 Moreover, for instance, times to times, I write entries to my "blog":

https://simon.tournier.info/posts/

For example, this edited
<http://hpc.guix.info/blog/2021/10/when-docker-images-become-fixed-point/>
had been published before there
<https://simon.tournier.info/posts/2021-09-17-guix-pack-docker.html>.

Therefore, maybe people not afraid to write to their own blog but
afraid (or not knowing how to) to submit patches would provide
material for the official blog post, who knows. :-)


Last, we have to distinguish between "temporary" content and
well-maintained documentation.  We discussed many times the Cookbook
and I think what we are trying with a limited success that this
document fits too much goals at the same time.  For instance, if I
would have to send a patch for fixing Wikipedia typo or adding a quick
paragraph about preconditioner of linear system, I would never just do
one or the other.  The Cookbook is currently too rigid for quick
half-backed recipes.

In my views, for what they are worth, I think the level of
documentation should be:

 - manual as it is now
 - cookbook turned into a step by step comprehensive tutorial
 - wiki being a how-to-quickly-fix, similar to Arch wiki for instance

We have Guix manual which is really great.  We have Guile manual which
is really great once you know what you want.  What is missing in a
document in the middle and something similar to a wiki where it is
easy to edit and change.

For what the analogy is worth, Emacs manual and Emacs Lisp manual are
doing their job as manual.  However, if one is new to programming, the
document An Introduction to Programming in Emacs Lisp [1] is a great
resource because it is in the middle, IMHO.  The Cookbook should act
similarly.  Something as an official kind-of tutorial.

1: https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/eintr.html

And somewhere an easy to edit half-maintained not-really reviewed wiki
where anyone could provide their material.


Cheers,
simon