Re: [PATCH RFC 0/4] Getting rid of input labels?

[Nicolas Goaziou]

Hello,

Ludovic Courtès <ludo@gnu.org> writes:

> Here’s a proposal for a soft revolution: getting rid of input labels
> in package definitions.  Instead of writing:
>
>     (native-inputs
>      `(("autoconf" ,autoconf)
>        ("automake" ,automake)
>        ("pkg-config" ,pkg-config)
>        ("guile" ,guile-3.0)))
>     
> one can write:
>
>     (native-inputs (list autoconf automake pkg-config guile-3.0))

Nice! Thank you.

>   • Packages such as ‘tzdata’ use labels to refer to non-package
>     inputs.  These cannot be converted to the automatic labeling
>     style, or not without extra changes.

Would it be possible to write something like

  (inputs (let ((tzcode (origin ...)))
            (list ... tzcode ...)))

?
>
>   • Currently, something like:
>
>       (inputs (list glib))
>
>     is converted to:
>
>       (inputs `(("glib" ,glib)))
>
>     Should it, instead, be converted to:
>
>      (inputs `(("glib" ,glib)
>                ("glib:bin" ,glib "bin")))
>
>     ?  This would make the concise style strictly less
>     expressive, but maybe good enough?

Could the new syntax accept both variables and specifications, e.g.,

   (list "glib:bin" foo "bar@2.3")

?

Regards,
-- 
Nicolas Goaziou