2 ms·

Funny, I did quite a deep dive on this same issue about two years back, and came to exactly the opposite conclusion: keep ASDF, and lean on Nix to do pinning. I

Funny, I did quite a deep dive on this same issue about two years back, and came to exactly the opposite conclusion: keep ASDF, and lean on Nix to do pinning. I now maintain my own Common Lisp package repository, testing daily against nightly SBCL etc, and I've learned that a lot of CL stability is just because test suites are never run. Nix goes a long way to shield me from the haphazard breakages that other commenters mentioned, but of course it comes with a huge downside: you need to use Nix :) (just kidding) Code at https://github.com/hraban/cl-nix-lite https://github.com/hraban/cl-nix-lite if someone is interested. Obviously since this was written by Fukamachi you know it will be good. Much respect to the man.

zelcon 2y ago
Really unfortunate that Guix never took off. Guile is so much nicer than Nix slop.
- kentrado 2y ago
  The biggest issue for me is how slow guix is when doing guix pull. Also, the amount of space taken is unacceptable. Several times I had my HD filled with guix garbage.
- nothrabannosir 2y ago
  At the risk of derailing the conversation (although Guix is a lisp so maybe not): I agree 100% but also maybe Nix's pragmatism is why it's more popular? "Pragmatism" being a programming language euphemism for "untyped hacky mess".
- ducktective 2y ago
  >Guix never took off Why is this in past tense? Guix development is active. It's just Nix is more popular and it's understandable since it's the original idea and it's older.
  - pxc 2y ago
    Guix even has a very active, high-quality blog where maintainers detail major technical accomplishments, long-term goals, etc.: https://guix.gnu.org/en/blog/ https://guix.gnu.org/en/blog/ From here it seems like they're growing and advancing well. I wish I could find ready historical data on the numbers of packages and services from, say, 4 years ago vs. today, though. I could have sworn Repology used to show year over year stuff but I can't find it now.
lukego 2y ago
The nixpkgs upstream CL infrastructure is also recently updated and IMHO excellent: https://nixos.org/manual/nixpkgs/stable/#lisp https://nixos.org/manual/nixpkgs/stable/#lisp

zelcon 2y ago

Really unfortunate that Guix never took off. Guile is so much nicer than Nix slop.

kentrado 2y ago
The biggest issue for me is how slow guix is when doing guix pull. Also, the amount of space taken is unacceptable. Several times I had my HD filled with guix garbage.
nothrabannosir 2y ago
At the risk of derailing the conversation (although Guix is a lisp so maybe not): I agree 100% but also maybe Nix's pragmatism is why it's more popular? "Pragmatism" being a programming language euphemism for "untyped hacky mess".
ducktective 2y ago
>Guix never took off Why is this in past tense? Guix development is active. It's just Nix is more popular and it's understandable since it's the original idea and it's older.
- pxc 2y ago
  Guix even has a very active, high-quality blog where maintainers detail major technical accomplishments, long-term goals, etc.: https://guix.gnu.org/en/blog/ https://guix.gnu.org/en/blog/ From here it seems like they're growing and advancing well. I wish I could find ready historical data on the numbers of packages and services from, say, 4 years ago vs. today, though. I could have sworn Repology used to show year over year stuff but I can't find it now.

lukego 2y ago

The nixpkgs upstream CL infrastructure is also recently updated and IMHO excellent: https://nixos.org/manual/nixpkgs/stable/#lisp https://nixos.org/manual/nixpkgs/stable/#lisp