* show nix-shell --run
it's quite useful and not necessarily obvious without reading reference documentation
Co-authored-by: Silvan Mosberger <github@infinisil.com>
* Remove specific software name from header
There's enough detail about it below, and the specific tech isn't the point of this section anyway.
Co-authored-by: Valentin Gagarin <valentin.gagarin@tweag.io>
* rewrite guide to pinning dependencies with niv
* use the specific branch directly
Co-authored-by: Silvan Mosberger <github@infinisil.com>
* use the shell's niv explicitly
* Apply suggestions from code review
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Co-authored-by: Silvan Mosberger <github@infinisil.com>
rephrase slightly for brevity and clarity.
re-use the examples from the ad-hoc environment tutorial both for
simplicity as well as to give it some continuity.
Co-authored-by: Alexander Groleau <alex@proof.construction>
this fits the global outline we developed, and also makes the tutorial
more immediately visible - working with the Nix language is a core skill
we want to teach after all
change "build task" to "derivation" in tutorial
"build task" invokes associations with pre-existing knowledge. As long as they are clearly explained, it is easier for beginners to pick up a new word than it is to add a new definition to an existing word that subtly differs from the other definitions it has. To that extent, "derivation" is probably a great word for Nix as, at least in this domain, it is very Nix specific and so, with clear definition, it should be easy to convey the idea to other folks that we are talking about something Nix specific.
> The chained script interpreter to be invoked
Chained is mentioned here but then also forgotten about: https://nixos.org/manual/nix/unstable/command-ref/nix-shell.html
Mostly it's unclear here why there are multiple weird hashbang lines there that are the same.
Also it's not great that here an entirely new construct is introduced that probably nobody will have ever seen before and to understand what it does you have to go to several different off-site documentation pages.
Can this be rewritten to be more standalone?
introducing a negatively connotated word is probably not a good idea.
there is some risk of inducing fear that was not there before, and the
tongue-in-cheek aspect may not come across.
the title should be unique and easy to recognise, and it was. "Reading
the Nix language" is already the title of the talk most of this is based
on, and we shouldn't reuse it
this collapses the "don't panic" section into a motivating introduction and gives
the document a more distinctive name.
this also addresses feedback stating that having "basics" in the title
may be misleading about the effort required to work through the
tutorial.
