even though

❯ echo $NIX_PATH
nixpkgs=/nix/store/sd0xal2sd16vwgpba0z7cwr6zylp3axk-z6w242l49pbrdawkz5vdhfxh2mvsj36c-source

In reply to @nbp:mozilla.org
I do not want to be the devil advocate, but I just listen to an argument in a video roughly paraphrasing: "Due to the lack of proper documentation, Youtube videos about Nix are doing well"

That video seems to be about NixOS, in which case that statement is a fair assessment. NixOS documentation is certainly not in a good shape and essentially unmaintained content-wise.

Nixpkgs has a huge surface and we can barely scratch that with available capacity, but it’s very slowly getting better. There are also a lot of infrastructure issues, going deep down into the code.

Nix itself is much more manageable in terms of system size and complexity, so progress is more visible there. But there are the same kind of structural problems that really need to be addressed at the code level to unblock sweeping improvements documentation.

In reply to @nbp:mozilla.org
I do not want to be the devil advocate, but I just listen to an argument in a video roughly paraphrasing: "Due to the lack of proper documentation, Youtube videos about Nix are doing well"

except most community-based information of this sort is either:

1. wrong

2. propagating unhelpful practices

3. more of the "first we copy this" "then we paste this" variety

Anyway, I'm interested in contributing a series of small packages to nixpkgs which are meant to serve as documented examples/best-practices for how to make packages for various languages using the Nix language (i.e. no use of nix-community tools, and extremely conservative use of overlay/override: only when there is no other option).

Likely these can also be referenced in the docs, but for now, my goal is in particular, to get the examples out.

Do you all think this makes sense as a project? If it does then: as I am a complete Nix beginner (I have just gotten my NixOS setup stable after 2+ weeks of work), I would really benefit from being able to ask for help (the alternative is to get side-tracked with random information from the internet, until I am ultimately corrected by someone who knows better). Where would it be appropriate for me to ask questions without worry/judgement?

In reply to @bzzm3r:matrix.org

Anyway, I'm interested in contributing a series of small packages to nixpkgs which are meant to serve as documented examples/best-practices for how to make packages for various languages using the Nix language (i.e. no use of nix-community tools, and extremely conservative use of overlay/override: only when there is no other option).

Likely these can also be referenced in the docs, but for now, my goal is in particular, to get the examples out.

Do you all think this makes sense as a project? If it does then: as I am a complete Nix beginner (I have just gotten my NixOS setup stable after 2+ weeks of work), I would really benefit from being able to ask for help (the alternative is to get side-tracked with random information from the internet, until I am ultimately corrected by someone who knows better). Where would it be appropriate for me to ask questions without worry/judgement?

If you can devote time to that, it would be a blast. There's a fairly old issue about it here, but it's still on the radar: https://github.com/NixOS/nix.dev/issues/278

You'll surely get lots of feedback on the didactic part and about generic Nix aspects from the docs team, and it may be worth upstreaming things into Nixpkgs on the side to get maintainer feedback for stylistic.

And while I really don't want to hamper your enthusiasm, expect it to be a big project that may not terminate within your available time. The reference documentation is often so sparse it's useless. Start out with one language, do a cheap draft and bounce it against us.

In reply to @bzzm3r:matrix.org

Anyway, I'm interested in contributing a series of small packages to nixpkgs which are meant to serve as documented examples/best-practices for how to make packages for various languages using the Nix language (i.e. no use of nix-community tools, and extremely conservative use of overlay/override: only when there is no other option).

Likely these can also be referenced in the docs, but for now, my goal is in particular, to get the examples out.

Do you all think this makes sense as a project? If it does then: as I am a complete Nix beginner (I have just gotten my NixOS setup stable after 2+ weeks of work), I would really benefit from being able to ask for help (the alternative is to get side-tracked with random information from the internet, until I am ultimately corrected by someone who knows better). Where would it be appropriate for me to ask questions without worry/judgement?

If you can devote time to that, it would be a blast. There's a fairly old issue about it here, but it's still on the radar: https://github.com/NixOS/nix.dev/issues/278

You'll surely get lots of feedback on the didactic part and about generic Nix aspects from the docs team, and it may be worth upstreaming things into Nixpkgs on the side to get maintainer feedback on style and conventions.

And while I really don't want to hamper your enthusiasm, expect it to be a big project that may not terminate within your available time. The reference documentation is often so sparse it's useless. Start out with one language, do a cheap draft and bounce it against us.