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The point is: a couple of the tough points in packaging something with Nix are "how to come up with the Nix expression", but also how to get the software you're

The point is: a couple of the tough points in packaging something with Nix are "how to come up with the Nix expression", but also how to get the software you're packaging to build with the constraints Nix has (no fetching external dependencies, shared libraries explicitly declared in non-standard locations, etc.). A bespoke YAML format is arguably not simpler than just "here's the equivalent Nix expression". But, sure, can be more accessible for some people. But, providing a nice facade over the Nix language doesn't help with cases of where Nix can be difficult to work with.

zuzuleinen 4y ago
> But, providing a nice facade over the Nix language doesn't help with cases of where Nix can be difficult to work with. This is true. If you reach the point where you need to write your own Nix expression you currently can become stuck. But I think these are problems that are waiting to be solved. There are folks are already working on a new language tutorial at nix.dev for example and other tools that can abstract some of the problems we have now can be built. I believe we are still in an early stage when it come to reproducibility and we just have to keep working at it.