bug#29072: The usability of Guix configurations

[myglc2]

Please note: these replies are separated by topics in an effort to make the
threads more topical ...

On 11/06/2017 at 17:16 Leo Famulari writes:

> On Mon, Nov 06, 2017 at 03:12:11PM -0500, myglc2 wrote:
[...]
>> Guix config errors are reported as raw scheme errors which are not
>> user-friendly, except, perhaps, to guile users ;-) Could we improve this
>> situation by adding config troubleshooting guidance to the doc?
>
> Yes, we do try to add helpful error messages, although obviously there
> is a lot more work to be done.

I didn't mean this point critically. Rather as a statement of fact. When
I said ...

>> Could we improve this situation by adding config troubleshooting
>> guidance to the doc?

... I was thinking something like ...

vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

Troubleshooting your config file:

If you get an error like:

ice-9/boot-9.scm:[...] no code for module (gnu packages <package name>)

You have either specified a package name that does not exist, or your
(use-package-modules <package module names>) does not contain the name
of a package module that contains the definition of <package name>.

You can determine which, if any, module contains a package definition by
yada yada yada

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

... thinking that then there would be a search hit in the doc for 'no
code for module' which might enable some users to understand what they
are doing wrong.

WDYT? - George