Re: Guix beyond 1.0: let’s have a roadmap!

[Robert Vollmert]

> On 1. Jul 2019, at 11:55, Ludovic Courtès <address@hidden> wrote:
> 
> Hello,
> 
> Robert Vollmert <address@hidden> skribis:
> 
>> - better stack traces when things go wrong (this would be both guile work
>>  and guix guile-module work as far as I can tell)
> 
> I agree that we must keep improving error reporting in general.  Stack
> traces are very much on the Guile side of things.
> 
> OTOH, due to EDSLs in Guix, there are things where Guile itself will
> display what it sees, but what it sees is not quite what you’d like to
> see as a Guix hacker.  So here we can probably do better on our side.
> 
> I’d encourage you to post specific examples to address@hidden showing
> what you get and what you’d like to see.  It’ll be easier to work from
> examples that in the abstract.
> 
>> - more consistent and useful output — currently it’s very easy to miss the
>>  actual cause of an error between a lot of noise, e.g. all those “recompiling
>>  scheme module” messages
> 
> When do you see “recompiling” messages?

Here’s an example:  ~/guix-postgrest$ guix build -L . postgrest
;;; note: source file ./bytestring.scm
;;;       newer than compiled 
/gnu/store/r6w8vjfdii0pscbp6lmy6siqvzy2lgcn-postgrest/lib/guile/2.2/site-ccache/bytestring.go
;;; note: source file ./check.scm
;;;       newer than compiled 
/gnu/store/r6w8vjfdii0pscbp6lmy6siqvzy2lgcn-postgrest/lib/guile/2.2/site-ccache/check.go
;;; note: source file ./control.scm
;;;       newer than compiled 
/gnu/store/r6w8vjfdii0pscbp6lmy6siqvzy2lgcn-postgrest/lib/guile/2.2/site-ccache/control.go
;;; note: source file ./text.scm
;;;       newer than compiled 
/gnu/store/r6w8vjfdii0pscbp6lmy6siqvzy2lgcn-postgrest/lib/guile/2.2/site-ccache/text.go
;;; note: source file ./data.scm
;;;       newer than compiled 
/gnu/store/r6w8vjfdii0pscbp6lmy6siqvzy2lgcn-postgrest/lib/guile/2.2/site-ccache/data.go
;;; note: source file ./more-data.scm
;;;       newer than compiled 
/gnu/store/r6w8vjfdii0pscbp6lmy6siqvzy2lgcn-postgrest/lib/guile/2.2/site-ccache/more-data.go
;;; note: source file ./containers.scm
;;;       newer than compiled 
/gnu/store/r6w8vjfdii0pscbp6lmy6siqvzy2lgcn-postgrest/lib/guile/2.2/site-ccache/containers.go
;;; note: source file ./core.scm
;;;       newer than compiled 
/gnu/store/r6w8vjfdii0pscbp6lmy6siqvzy2lgcn-postgrest/lib/guile/2.2/site-ccache/core.go
;;; note: source file ./postgrest-deps.scm
;;;       newer than compiled 
/gnu/store/r6w8vjfdii0pscbp6lmy6siqvzy2lgcn-postgrest/lib/guile/2.2/site-ccache/postgrest-deps.go
;;; note: source file ./postgrest.scm
;;;       newer than compiled 
/gnu/store/r6w8vjfdii0pscbp6lmy6siqvzy2lgcn-postgrest/lib/guile/2.2/site-ccache/postgrest.go
;;; note: source file ./sql.scm
;;;       newer than compiled 
/gnu/store/r6w8vjfdii0pscbp6lmy6siqvzy2lgcn-postgrest/lib/guile/2.2/site-ccache/sql.go
;;; note: source file ./template.scm
;;;       newer than compiled 
/gnu/store/r6w8vjfdii0pscbp6lmy6siqvzy2lgcn-postgrest/lib/guile/2.2/site-ccache/template.go
;;; note: source file ./wai.scm
;;;       newer than compiled 
/gnu/store/r6w8vjfdii0pscbp6lmy6siqvzy2lgcn-postgrest/lib/guile/2.2/site-ccache/wai.go
;;; note: source file ./service.scm
;;;       newer than compiled 
/gnu/store/r6w8vjfdii0pscbp6lmy6siqvzy2lgcn-postgrest/lib/guile/2.2/site-ccache/service.go
;;; note: source file ./service.scm
;;;       newer than compiled 
/home/rob/.cache/guile/ccache/2.2-LE-8-3.A/home/rob/guix-postgrest/service.scm.go
substitute: updating substitutes from 'https://ci.guix.gnu.org'... 100.0%
[…]

I’m working in a directory that’s a local checkout of my “postgrest” guix 
channel.

> It looks like a bug we could address soonish, not a long-term task.  :-)

I’m certainly in favour of fixing these things as they show up, and will 
continue
to report them.

My reason for the suggestion is that my general impression is that error 
messages
and useful console output is not a priority that’s generally agreed upon. And
making that a stated goal might help to change that. :)

Robert