Re: Reorganizing guix package commands

[Alex Kost]

John Darrington (2016-04-20 08:34 +0300) wrote:

> On Tue, Apr 19, 2016 at 11:45:26PM -0400, myglc2 wrote:
>
>      Table 2: Novice-friendly Commands
>      =================================
>      | existing command                       | new command           |
>      |----------------------------------------+-----------------------|
>      | guix package --list-available[=REGEXP] | guix available REGEXP |
>      | guix package --search=REGEXP           | guix find REGEXP      |
>      | guix package --show=PACKAGE            | guix show PACKAGE     |
>      | guix package --install PACKAGE         | guix install PACKAGE  |
>      | guix package --remove PACKAGE          | guix remove PACKAGE   |
>      | guix package --list-installed[=REGEXP] | guix list             |
>      | guix package --roll-back               | guix roll-back        |
>
>      This makes the most important new user commands simpler and it makes
>      them appear in "guix help". IMO, this will go a long way to improving
>      the novice user's experience.
>
> I agree this would make more sense.

Oh, no!  I had an opposite idea: I think there should be only
unambiguous subcommands!

> 1. I never did understand why we use so many  -- flags.  Options are supposed
>    to be just that:  Options to affect nuances about how the command should be
>    executed. Eg "ls --color" (We don't type "file --list")  Options should not
>    normally be used for selecting a command to run.

I agree, I would prefer more actions/subcommands and less options/flags.

> 2. However, I wonder if such an arrangement could come back and bite us?  For
>    example there are a number of other things that one might want to remove, 
> list, show or find -
>    not just packages;  Profiles, services for example.  How would doing that 
> fit
>    into the above scheme?

This is exactly why I think these commands (show, install, list, etc.)
shouldn't be top-level.  IMO some of them should be inside "guix
package" and some inside "guix profile".

-- 
Alex