The Nix language is basically what you'd get if you were designing a DSL for declarative configuration of extremely deeply nested trees. Nearly every "feature"

The Nix language is basically what you'd get if you were designing a DSL for declarative configuration of extremely deeply nested trees. Nearly every "feature" in the language is for making that easier. You could probably write a Nix -> JSON compiler and end up with something completely unreadable because the language hides so much of what's actually present in the fully resolved tree.