 | Nix Documentation | 419 Members |
| Discussion about documentation improvements around the Nix ecosystem | 86 Servers |
| Nix Documentation | 419 Members |
| Discussion about documentation improvements around the Nix ecosystem | 86 Servers |
| Sender | Message | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 25 Nov 2023 | ||
 @bzzm3r:matrix.org | While I'm not sure I can make it to weekly meetings (anxiety), I think I'm slowly clobbering together enough to eventually contribute more documentation. | 20:56:40 |
| 26 Nov 2023 | ||
 infinisil | In reply to @bzzm3r:matrix.orgYeah nixos-rebuild really can't do that, which is why I wrote a small wrapper in https://github.com/infinisil/sanix | 07:03:14 |
| infinisil | I wrote this exactly for what you were trying :) | 07:04:42 |
 @olafklingt:matrix.org | where do i find the functions pkgs.nixos and pkgs.path in the nixpkgs manual? only found nixos but pkgs.path nowhere. | 13:54:26 |
| infinisil | olaf: When you're looking for Nixpkgs docs, the question shouldn't be "Where is", but rather "Is there" xD | 18:39:04 |
| infinisil | Sounds like PR material to me! | 18:39:31 |
| @olafklingt:matrix.org | Yes it should be in nixpkgs manual. | 18:43:11 |
| @olafklingt:matrix.org | I added a commit to the vm tutorial pr with a detailed description of the reproducable command. It's not finished yet but i would like to know if it is the right direction to add such a description. https://github.com/NixOS/nix.dev/pull/807/commits/ff5c7fad92acc9deb4fcd40d39eeb9300cd41cfa | 18:49:22 |
| infinisil | https://discourse.nixos.org/t/announcing-nixlang-wiki/36049 😕 | 19:08:23 |
 sterni | just one more separate documentation resource just one more I promise it’s gonna fix it | 19:33:23 |
| @bzzm3r:matrix.org | In reply to @infinisil:matrix.org🤩 | 23:49:51 |
| 27 Nov 2023 | ||
 asymmetric | idk if this is the first outside contribution to nrd, but it's a good validation of the choice of moving to python that we got one, imo! https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/pull/269942 | 15:36:38 |
| 28 Nov 2023 | ||
 curtismchale joined the room. | 15:47:32 | |
| curtismchale | In reply to @infinisil:matrix.orgI saw this and wondered if there was something I could do to help the official docs team. So I'm here now as an experienced dev, but NixOS neophyte. Maybe I can help document stuff when I get stuck because the docs seem to have some decent assumed knowledge that I don't currently have. | 15:49:18 |
| curtismchale set a profile picture. | 15:53:48 | |
| infinisil | curtismchale: Awesome! I think one of the easiest things to help out with is to just read through nix.dev, to both learn about Nix, and to discover the structure of nix.dev. And if you find any problems, anything that's unclear or doesn't work, file an issue in the github repo, or even better, submit a PR to fix it :) | 16:17:49 |
 Minijackson | hey! I've had someone skim through the Nix language basics tutorial of nix.dev, and he mentioned something quite interesting, there's no mention of the if ... then ... else ... construct | 17:42:46 |
| Minijackson | is there somewhere else where it's introduced ? | 17:43:00 |
| Minijackson | * is there somewhere else where it's introduced? | 17:43:01 |
| infinisil | Minijackson: Looks like an oversight! Could you open an issue for this? | 18:23:59 |
| Minijackson | sure! | 18:24:23 |
| Minijackson | done: https://github.com/NixOS/nix.dev/issues/817 | 18:32:24 |
 fricklerhandwerk | In reply to @infinisil:matrix.orgIt’s not an oversight. As mentioned at least twice in bold letters in the introduction, this is not supposed to be a complete overview but shall rather point out things that are both important and unusual about the language. Conditionals are neither, therefore they aren’t there. The article is very long already. | 19:27:33 |
| fricklerhandwerk | What I could really need help with is cleaning up the language reference in the Nix manual. It’s still mostly a long meandering wall of text that needs to be a lot more concise, needs more focused examples, and most importantly syntax patterns for all the constructs. | 19:29:43 |
| 29 Nov 2023 | ||
 @zmitchell:matrix.org | You don’t think conditionals are an important part of the language? They’re one of the first things you learn in any language… | 16:50:43 |
| Minijackson | I do think the tutorial needs to quite small to be digestible. Maybe the page needs to be split into a Tutorial + Reference? | 17:49:22 |
| fricklerhandwerk | In reply to @zmitchell:matrix.org Yes, conditionals are essential for programming. But they’re not special at all in the Nix language and - maybe important is not a good word, let’s say - particularly relevant for how it’s used in practice. As a beginner you will likely only see and work with purely declarative constructs. The introductory tutorial is absolutely not about computational reasoning, and definitely not about expressing anything in the language, but first and foremost about getting a first clue about what’s even going on. We have to optimize for brevity and relevance, and I deem conditionals to below the threshold for a first encounter. People are more likely to see | 17:55:55 |
| fricklerhandwerk | In reply to @zmitchell:matrix.org* Yes, conditionals are essential for programming. But they’re not special at all in the Nix language and - maybe important is not a good word, let’s say - particularly relevant for how it’s used in practice. As a beginner you will likely only see and work with purely declarative constructs. The introductory tutorial is absolutely not about computational reasoning, and definitely not about expressing anything in the language, but first and foremost about getting a first clue about what’s even going on. We have to optimize for brevity and relevance, and I deem conditionals to below the threshold for a first encounter. People are more likely to see map and filter than if … then … else in the wild. This is e.g. why builtins are mentioned, but not in any detail. | 17:56:27 |
| @zmitchell:matrix.org | Even if that’s the case, the fact that most people use imperative languages with if-statements is reason enough to at least call out that they do exist if you want them, but you probably want to do XYZ instead. | 20:09:16 |
| fricklerhandwerk | * Yes, conditionals are essential for programming. But they’re not special at all in the Nix language and - maybe important is not a good word, let’s say - particularly relevant for how it’s used in practice. As a beginner you will likely only see and work with purely declarative constructs. The introductory tutorial is absolutely not about computational reasoning, and definitely not about expressing anything in the language, but first and foremost about getting a first clue about what’s even going on. We have to optimize for brevity and relevance, and I deem conditionals to below the threshold for a first encounter. People are more likely to see map and filter than if … then … else in the wild. This is e.g. why builtins are mentioned, but not in any detail. | 23:43:47 |