> The Nix language is designed for conveniently creating and composing derivations – precise descriptions of how contents of existing files are used to derive new files.
I’m getting Wikipedia math vibes.
"1990 - A committee formed by Simon Peyton-Jones, Paul Hudak, Philip Wadler, Ashton Kutcher, and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals creates Haskell, a pure, non-strict, functional language. Haskell gets some resistance due to the complexity of using monads to control side effects. Wadler tries to appease critics by explaining that "a monad is a monoid in the category of endofunctors, what's the problem?""
Math people: "What if we made software code more like mathematical proofs?"
Idk. What if you had dated before age 38?
[0] http://james-iry.blogspot.com/2009/05/brief-incomplete-and-m...
> pkgs.mkShell is a specialized stdenv.mkDerivation that removes some repetition when using it with nix-shell (or nix develop).
Producing books demand a significant effort, especially if it's a teaching book, not a mere reference and still cover enough, keeping it up to date in a modern project it's almost a nightmare, so videos and examples remain the quickest and easiest solution.
Personally the main issue I have with NixOS is:
- the Nix language, especially compared to Guix System
- the lack of quickly digestible AND still deep enough docs
I've using NixOS as my main desktop and homeserver since some years and I still have to know Nix enough to be really "confident enough"...
Text guides will often skip steps because they assume the reader will know what to do.
