| 8 Jul 2021 |
 Las | That's what I'm wondering because it's incompatible with Nix synax | 16:21:51 |
| Las | * That's what I'm wondering because it's incompatible with Nix syntax | 16:21:53 |
 balsoft | I hope not :/ | 16:21:53 |
| Las | Why? | 16:21:58 |
| balsoft | It's not compatible with Nix, so instead of a switch it would be like a total rewrite of everything. | 16:22:52 |
| Las | How so? | 16:23:06 |
| Las | Other than the surface syntax differences? | 16:23:16 |
| balsoft | "The surface syntax differences" mean that you have to rewrite all of nixpkgs. | 16:23:32 |
 pamplemousse | In reply to @balsoft:balsoft.ru
It's not compatible with Nix, so instead of a switch it would be like a total rewrite of everything. Not necessarily, there could be tools developped to transpile from Nix to Nickel. | 16:23:37 |
| balsoft | In reply to @pamplemouss_:matrix.org
Not necessarily, there could be tools developped to transpile from Nix to Nickel. In that case we shall be stuck in a limbo with the disadvantages of both languages until we finish the idiomatic rewrite (which will likely never happen) | 16:24:10 |
| Las | In reply to @balsoft:balsoft.ru
"The surface syntax differences" mean that you have to rewrite all of nixpkgs. That's what I'm wondering about though | 16:24:14 |
| Las | I was wondering if they're going to perhaps add some compatibility mode | 16:24:21 |
| Las | E.g. parse .nix files with the old Nix syntax | 16:24:30 |
| balsoft | Looking at how painfully the introduction of flakes is going (and they are a great feature, with many advantages, and almost trivially compatible with pre-flake nix) the community may not survive something as massive as a switch to another language entirely. | 16:25:48 |
| Las | I get that | 16:26:33 |
| Las | I wonder why they didn't just make Nickel Nix with types | 16:26:39 |
| Las | Instead of making it Almost Nix with types | 16:26:47 |
| balsoft | They tried | 16:26:46 |
| balsoft | The initiative died | 16:26:51 |
| Las | How come? | 16:26:56 |
| balsoft | https://www.tweag.io/blog/2017-05-23-typing-nix/ | 16:27:02 |
| balsoft | https://github.com/NixOS/nix/issues/3042#issuecomment-521188864 | 16:27:33 |
| Las | Thanks | 16:27:48 |
| Las | That link mentions static typing though, not gradual typing | 16:28:20 |
| balsoft | What I would love to see is a new distro, built from scratch, with Nickel at its core. | 16:28:24 |
| balsoft | Then we can evaluate how that worked out and perhaps bring many improvements from there over to Nix(OS) | 16:28:46 |
| balsoft | The most basic linux distro (maybe with busybox and musl, for extra simplicity) shouldn't be too long to make. | 16:29:22 |
| balsoft | * The most basic linux distro (maybe with busybox and musl, for extra simplicity) shouldn't take too long to make. | 16:29:30 |
| balsoft | Just something without init, that launches into a user-specified executable, all instantiated by nickel and realised by nix. | 16:30:12 |
| balsoft | If it turns out Nickel is so great at this that it's feasible to make something more complex -- great, we have another sister project that we can mutually benefit from. If not, learn from mistakes, find the good parts and bring them to NixOS. | 16:31:30 |
