Re: GSOC 2016 Application

[sapientech]

Hi Chris thanks for the response!

On 2016-03-25 09:03, Chris Marusich wrote:
> I would be happy to share with you the hacky little shell scripts I use
> to do this today.  They're simple automations of the manual procedure,
> really, but perhaps they could be useful.  I am not familiar with the
> implementation details of installer wizards used by other distros, but
> I've seen and used my fair share of them.

I would definitely like to see the shell scripts you have -- just let me 
know how you would like to share those files.

> > - Consider both a text-based and graphical application using
> > guile-ncurses/libRUIN
>
> While it's good to plan for both text and graphical UI, maybe it will 
> be
> more efficient to pick one to focus on, and treat the other as a 
> stretch
> goal?

I agree and should turn the GUI interface into a stretch goal.

> > - Design for portability for use in other software distributions that
> > lack a proper installer wizard
>
> Again, this is a nice idea, but it might be more efficient to focus on
> getting it to work with Guix first.
>
> > - An emphasis on rigorous test suites, with stability prioritized over 
> > features
>
> GuixSD is still beta software.  Is it a good idea to make one of your
> goals be "the installer is stable" when the system it's installing is
> not stable?

I also agree with your sentiments here that I should prioritize Guix 
before considering other operating systems.

One reason I think stability is particularly important here though, is 
that installs have to check for a lot of edge cases, and it's generally 
difficult for users to solve the problem since the api is so limited. I 
agree I shouldn't go overboard, as Guile itself is in beta, though :)

Best,
Dylan