6 ms·

If I were to speculate I think the absolute brutality of initial learning curve filtered anyone who perceives the usability as a problem so it never got improv

by Hnus 4y ago

If I were to speculate I think the absolute brutality of initial learning curve filtered anyone who perceives the usability as a problem so it never got improved.

di4na 4y ago
No, the sad reality is that doing UX change are really hard and need deep change to the nix codebase. The nix codebase is more than unwieldy plus most people interested in UX... do not get paid to work on nix. Quite simply.
colinsane 4y ago
a good deal of users who overcome the usability issues of nix remain ill-equipped to contribute to nix beyond basic packaging. just because i can navigate Linux userland doesn’t mean i have a clue how to navigate the kernel, is i hope a not-terrible metaphor.
- pxc 4y ago
  Nixpkgs and NixOS also some prolific contributors who never had any prior functional programming experience, so clearly there's a way out. We just have to capture and reproduce that.
  - SuperSandro2000 4y ago
    I still can't really program in a functional programming language.
    - pxc 4y ago
      Exactly. You've learned what you needed to in order to be productive and achieve your goals with Nix, and that hasn't required you to stop everything to take a crash course in functional programming. Individual functional programming techniques may become interesting to you as you become curious about some implementation details— you might read a bit about 'fixed point recursion' after you chat with some people about how overlays work. But you don't have to think of yourself as a functional programmer to make great use of Nix or even to help solve technical problems in Nixpkgs. I think some folks hear all the FP talk surrounding Nix and don't realize that there's a lot they can achieve and contribute without being FP wizards. And that sucks. I hope that the ecosystem feels increasingly welcoming to people like that as the documentation and UX continue to improve.

by Hnus 4y ago

If I were to speculate I think the absolute brutality of initial learning curve filtered anyone who perceives the usability as a problem so it never got improved.

di4na 4y ago

No, the sad reality is that doing UX change are really hard and need deep change to the nix codebase. The nix codebase is more than unwieldy plus most people interested in UX... do not get paid to work on nix. Quite simply.

colinsane 4y ago

a good deal of users who overcome the usability issues of nix remain ill-equipped to contribute to nix beyond basic packaging. just because i can navigate Linux userland doesn’t mean i have a clue how to navigate the kernel, is i hope a not-terrible metaphor.

pxc 4y ago
Nixpkgs and NixOS also some prolific contributors who never had any prior functional programming experience, so clearly there's a way out. We just have to capture and reproduce that.
- SuperSandro2000 4y ago
  I still can't really program in a functional programming language.
  - pxc 4y ago
    Exactly. You've learned what you needed to in order to be productive and achieve your goals with Nix, and that hasn't required you to stop everything to take a crash course in functional programming. Individual functional programming techniques may become interesting to you as you become curious about some implementation details— you might read a bit about 'fixed point recursion' after you chat with some people about how overlays work. But you don't have to think of yourself as a functional programmer to make great use of Nix or even to help solve technical problems in Nixpkgs. I think some folks hear all the FP talk surrounding Nix and don't realize that there's a lot they can achieve and contribute without being FP wizards. And that sucks. I hope that the ecosystem feels increasingly welcoming to people like that as the documentation and UX continue to improve.