Re: Idea: a meta language for (language) build systems - npm, Racket, Rust cargo

[Pjotr Prins]

On Sun, May 30, 2021 at 09:17:20PM +0200, Konrad Hinsen wrote:
> How about pushing all the other package manager towards producing
> sexp-packs, and helping them to get there?

I have a feeling they won't be that interested ;).

My thoughts are that every software package simply consists of files
that need to be compiled (if not interpreted) and be copied in place.

As Guix takes care of the first and the last - the issue centers
around building. The idea is to dress down these language specific
builders, such as cargo, so you don't have all the included
complexity. 

A sexp-pack would represent the most simple build instructions to
build a package on its own. Now, of course the current guix-builders
solve that too. But, what I am proposing is to split out the actual
build step into a package definition, so as to present something
simpler to Guix.

I found a cargo -> ninja converter. It is that kind of idea. Guix
would use ninja with rustc instead of cargo. A stripped down cargo
could potentially work too - but cargo is a complex beast.

A simplified build step would make it easier to troubleshoot these
packages.

See what I mean?

Pj.