Oh wait, I don't think that time is apples to apples:

[ryantm@replit1:~/p/nixpkgs]$ /run/current-system/sw/bin/time nix-build --check pkgs/top-level/release.nix -A manual.inputDerivation
trace: warning: lib.zipWithNames is a deprecated alias of lib.zipAttrsWithNames.
this derivation will be built:
  /nix/store/j622rlm0k013mmspbzgkqgd4zl12vvvd-nixpkgs-manual.drv
error: some outputs of '/nix/store/j622rlm0k013mmspbzgkqgd4zl12vvvd-nixpkgs-manual.drv' are not valid, so checking is not possible
Command exited with non-zero status 1
0.59user 0.18system 0:01.53elapsed 50%CPU (0avgtext+0avgdata 174980maxresident)k
0inputs+0outputs (0major+39908minor)pagefaults 0swaps

[ryantm@replit1:~/p/nixpkgs]$ nix path-info --recursive --closure-size --human-readable ./result
/nix/store/m94bxwbilm1hh0dzk53qs7zvdr1vwsps-nixpkgs-manual     2.0M

In reply to @ryantm:matrix.org
and your thing is already working mostly, though not multipage.

In reply to @rina/:matrix.org
i am starting to see that. though, i do not mind pitching in where i can :)

What would you be interested in taking a closer look at? It would also help knowing what you may have had experience with already, to find something that won’t overwhelm or frustrate you too quickly. Feel free to DM me if you don’t want this public.

Not everything needed to get started is written down nicely yet, so I can offer a brief guided tour of the various construction sites.

In reply to @rina/:matrix.org
i mainly use nix outside nixos, and much of my packaging experience is with C/C++ and cmake. maybe more documentation on dealing with cmake external projects would be useful too

There is a wealth of information here: https://nixos.wiki/wiki/C

Mostly written by @Mic92 in past years AFAIK. Would be great to have that closer to the code, because all of that is Nixpkgs material.

We still haven't really figured out how to organise troubleshooting tips and other guide-like material across the ecosystem though. The last state of affairs was that we converged on the idea that it should be a bit like what Johannes Kirschbauer @hsjobeki proposes for function documentation, but for guides: have a uniform format used across Nix, Nixpkgs, and NixOS, and present that in one place, annotated with tags and searchable. But that is a lot of "should", and will require thinking about the structure of the manuals, and moving around lots of text.

In reply to @rina/:matrix.org
hm off the top of my head, there are gaps around the trivial script writers - both in terms of documentation and the options they provide

Those were recently improved:

• https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/pull/280592
• https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/pull/277534

But there's definitely still work to do. Ideally we'd also render that stuff directly from the source. At least there is no duplication any more. I can imagine danielsidhion could help with reviews.

In reply to @rina/:matrix.org
i mainly use nix outside nixos, and much of my packaging experience is with C/C++ and cmake. maybe more documentation on dealing with cmake external projects would be useful too

There is a wealth of information here: https://nixos.wiki/wiki/C

Mostly written by @Mic92 in past years AFAIK. Would be great to have that closer to the code, because all of that is Nixpkgs material.

We still haven't really figured out how to organise troubleshooting tips and other guide-like material across the ecosystem though. The last state of affairs was that we converged on the idea that it should be a bit like what Johannes Kirschbauer @hsjobeki proposes for function documentation, but for guides: have a uniform format used across Nix, Nixpkgs, and NixOS, and present that in one place, annotated with tags and searchable. But that is a lot of "should", and will require thinking about the structure of the manuals, moving around lots of text, and building automation for presenting the result.