[Nix-dev] NixPkgs manual

[Marc Weber]

Eelco has told me today that we want to start a nixpkgs manual.

I like the idea. Proposed format is docbook (the way the nix and nixos
manual is written now).

I think that's fine.

I'd like to include the following topics:

  A) How is the nix language used / best practises what soever
    a) best practises 
      * when using with limit the amount of arguments passed somewhere :))
      * naming conventions (ugh. That's a thing I have still to do :)
      * link to the existing conventions.txt in pkgs/mantainers/docs

    b) Things you should know about
        -A to reduce time when selecting packages
        -K keep buid directory
        lib, sumArgs, config
        nix-support/propagated build inputs
        the default builder

    c) advanced /specialized functions such as
      builderDefs, mkDerivationByConfiguration
      Why/ goal / pros cons/ howto ?

  B) quality assurance eg doCheck = true etc

  C) Language specific implementation
    haskell)
      package databases
      how they are implemented
    C/C++)
        support for
        scons
        configure
        qmake
        cmake
        pkgconfig (eg Haskell Cabal knows how to use it.. So maybe we
                   can support for every library)
      Open Topics:
        would be cool to have headers separated from libs
        (thus -dev pacakages)

    Python)
      ..

  D) services and upstart ? (Does this belong here)

  E) mirrors
    for sourceforge mirrors://

  F) Releases ? planning / roadmap if there is any?
    some day cross-compiling ?

  G) Design patterns ?
    *) wrapper (the way I've used it in ghc now)
    *) put everyhging into the resuling profile and patch compilers etc
      to find their stuff in there (C/ C++ with
      .nix-profile/{include,lib}

  H) docs (info, man, pdf, html) ... ?
    How to install them and how to find them
    
  I) misc / experimental
    - my bleeding edge repository manager
    - generating tags automatically
    - nix create environments for developping only
    ...
  

The next step is to decide where to create the SVN repository for it,
right?
Feel free to exchange remove an add topics

Marc Weber