Subject: Re: bug#22600: 'Globally-Visible Packages' not shown by 'M-x guix-installed-packages'

From: myglc2 <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 08 Feb 2016 21:29:04 -0500

[email-masked] (Ludovic Courtès) writes:

> Alex Kost <[email-masked]> skribis:
>
>> myglc2 (2016-02-08 18:08 +0300) wrote:
>>
>>> In guixSD, 'Globally-Visible Packages' packages installed accoding to
>>> '7.2.1 Using the Configuration System' are not shown by 'M-x
>>> guix-installed-packages' and are shown as uninstalled in the 'M-x
>>> guix-all-packages' 'list' buffers.
>>
>> "M-x guix-installed-packages" shows the packages installed in a current
>> profile (which is ~/.guix-profile by default), the same way as "guix
>> package --list-installed" does.  You can prefix this command with C-u to
>> choose a profile you want.  See also (info "(guix) Emacs Commands").
>>
>> If you want to look at the packages installed globally, you can run "M-x
>> guix-system-generations" and press RET on the latest generation (I think
>> for convenience we can add "M-x guix-system-packages" command).

WOW! That IS a beautiful thing. And, the Guix Pack Info ...  AWESOME!

>
> Indeed, this is not a bug to me.
> myglc2: if you think anything is unclear in the documentation, let us
> know how we could improve it!
>
> Thanks,
> Ludo’.

SIDEBAR:

I hope it is OK that I am taking the liberty of reporting things that
seem counterintutive or difficult to understand in the bugs
channel. These may well be operator error or misunderstandings on my
part. I am happy to report in a different channel if that is better. Or
to have you say, "enough of this!"

About me: I want to never learn another distribution, package manager,
configuration approach, or deployment manager. So I really want you to
succeed. I have spent ~ 3 weeks studying and using Nix, NixOS and
guixSD.  I have used computers to build models since 1975 and I hope to
use guix in my next work.  I figure that if something puzzles me, it may
be puzzeling to others and a barrier to guix' adoption. I want to help
reduce such barriers.

I am writing in the first person to convey the way that I visualize that
your new users, which hopefully will come and stay to play, might
experience guix. It is not my intent to pick on guix or the doc, both of
which are truly outstanding.

BACK TO THE "BUG"

Yes, it is probably not a bug in a technical sense and/or given the way
you conceptualize guix. But, at the risk of being a bore, may I please
restate: 

It seemed really counterintuitive that when I did ...

'M-x guix-installed packages'

... I saw ...

"No package outputs installed in profile '/var/guix/profiles/per-user/glc/guix-profile'."

My concern is that this experience might leave a new user thinking,
"Geez, I know back in the fog of the USB install I added packages. What
kind of package manager is this? It doesn't show me the packages that I
painfully typed in using zile at the console". IMO this is the kind of
doubt that can undermine confidence during the critical first few hours
of software test driving and lead a user to abandon the experment. 

My own experience: I had been going back to the config.scm files or
typing 'which' to see what was installed. I knew there were generations.
But believe it or not, in the course of working with guixSD for ~ 10
days, I had not used ...

1) "M-x guix-system-generations"

2) press RET on the latest generation

So say I am a dummy. I am fine with that.

But, wouldn't it be better to combine these functions so even a duummy
will see all the packages?

Maybe later, for the roadmap?