| 4 Apr 2026 |
 webtier | So a definition of literae files is ... I would say files written in some markdown language format which a compiler can still parse and compile, or interpret | 21:55:43 |
| webtier | I am thinking that, an optimum nix stack would be first literate lix support, for example one languge which has literate files is haskell | 21:56:23 |
| webtier | Secondly, once it has good literate file support, the next thing would be I think just a community app that can interpret those files and works like an options manager tool. | 21:57:15 |
| webtier | When it comes to literate files, i feel it would be very natural for the nix interpreter to allow files to be very descriptive, this is something i automatically feel like I need. Maybe every programming language does... | 21:58:03 |
 K900 | I mean realistically I don't think nixpkgs' giant-pile-of-fixpoints design lends itself well to literate anything | 21:58:05 |
| K900 | Because it's basically impossible to actually write a Nix file top to bottom | 21:58:27 |
| webtier | I don't think top to bottom is that important.. For fixpoints, could you please elaborate? This is about readability? | 22:01:17 |
| K900 | Well literate style generally implies that you're reading the entire file in order | 22:01:36 |
| K900 | And building up an understanding of the code as you go | 22:01:50 |
| K900 | But in nixpkgs and especially NixOS a lot of things happen because of weird side effects and things later in the file can affect things earlier in the file in unexpected ways | 22:02:16 |
| webtier | Right, I was thinking more direction-agnostic and documenting in a sense. For sure the general use case is for top-to-bottom understanding, but I am simply thinking about the technology not the principle | 22:04:32 |
| webtier | So literal just in the sense of being able to parse files which more complex markdown comment format. | 22:05:39 |
| webtier | * | 22:05:47 |
| webtier | * | 22:06:28 |
| K900 | Well there's already some level of support for Markdown in comments for :doc in the repl | 22:07:10 |
| webtier | That's good. What I'm imagining is that realistically, in the future we'd hit the nail on the head if basically something like that could be properly interpreted while at the same time allowing some other optional community app to use this same comment data to built a type of settings application. So like, as you configure your OS you keep making a more sophisticated "Settings" app... | 22:14:21 |
| K900 | I don't think that's something to be solved with comments tbh | 22:14:55 |
| webtier | I'm just brainstorming, want to note | 22:14:57 |
| K900 | I think the way to do that would be to provide better ways to introspect NixOS configurations in general | 22:15:10 |
| webtier | Yes that is true | 22:15:17 |
| K900 | But also there's incredible complexity there | 22:15:30 |
| K900 | That is really really hard to abstract over | 22:15:36 |
 Blastboom Strice | I thinl I know someone doing that with guix | 22:15:55 |
| K900 | https://github.com/oddlama/nixos-config-tui is one attempt I've seen that actually tries to follow the dependency chains | 22:15:59 |
| Blastboom Strice | * I thinl I know someone doing all this on guix | 22:16:12 |
| K900 | And that requires a custom build of the Nix interpreter | 22:16:21 |
| Blastboom Strice | * I think I know someone doing all this on guix | 22:18:04 |
| webtier | And looking at the current interpreter too... well maybe as a uni project | 22:20:29 |
| 5 Apr 2026 |
|  ritiek changed their profile picture. | 01:17:48 |
|  Lotte (it/its)/Cinny (she/her) θΔ& changed their profile picture. | 16:57:09 |
