Re: "M-x guix" - magit-like interface for guix commands

[Alex Kost]

Ludovic Courtès (2015-08-26 00:12 +0300) wrote:

> Alex Kost <address@hidden> skribis:
>
>> Thompson, David (2015-08-14 17:40 +0300) wrote:
[...]
>>> depending on Magit is too heavy a dependency.
>>
>> It does not depend on the whole Magit but only on a single
>> "magit-popup.el" file which may be installed separately (available on
>> Melpa, for example).  So potentially we can make a package just for this
>> library and use it.
>>
>> However, according to its manual¹, it will be superseded by a general
>> library which will not be a part of magit, so eventually it will be a
>> light-weight dependency I think.
>>
>> Anyway, we already have a heavy dependency for Emacs interface (Geiser).
>
> Yes, but Geiser is an “obvious” one that cannot be avoided.
>
> I haven’t tested wip-emacs-popup-ui yet because I have yet to switch to
> Magit 2 (I’m slightly afraid of breaking my workflow, maybe unreasonably
> so!).

Magit2 broke my workflow completely when I switched to it several months
ago, and it took some time to set it up for my needs.

> That said, since the functionality is in a separate file, people who
> don’t have magit-popup.el can just choose to not use M-x guix while
> still being available to use the other features, right?

Yes.  I think I'll mention in the manual that it is an optional
dependency used for “M-x guix”.

>>> I noticed an 'e' for 'environment'.  I imagine that's just a placeholder. ;)
>>
>> Not really, all commands (including 'environment') are ready to use.
>> You just specify the options you want in the magit manner and then you run
>> "Execute" action.  And the specified command is executed in Guix REPL.
>>
>> Specifically for 'environment' it may lead to a very interesting result
>> as it will spawn an external process, unless --dry-run or --search-paths
>> options were specified.  But still it will… let's say… work, but only if
>> a user is brave enough to try it ;)
>
> :-)
>
> It Would Be Nice to have, say, M-x guix-compile-in-environment, which
> would be like M-x compile but just run the thing in ‘guix environment’.
> Just thought I’d mention this in passing.  ;-)

Yes, I remember about emacs+environment wishes, but I don't promise
anything :-(

>> Also along with "execute in REPL" action I'm going to add 2 more default
>> actions for each command:
>>
>> - "execute in shell" — this will be a complete alternative to writing a
>>   full command manually in a shell buffer.
>>
>> - "copy the command line" — i.e., to put the specified command arguments
>>    into kill ring, so later a user could do with it whatever he wants.
>
> (he or she)
>
> Sounds like more exciting stuff ahead!

If you mean those 2 actions, they were implemented a couple of days
later.

> Thanks for your creativity & hack power!

Thank you very much!

-- 
Alex