#+AUTHOR: Pierre Neidhardt
#+EMAIL: mail@ambrevar.xyz
#+TITLE: Search & discover packages and services with GNU Guix

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#+TODO: Talk about guile.

* How do we search?

# https://www.ted.com/talks/tim_berners_lee_the_next_web/transcript

# TODO: Fill in the quote on linking web data.
"..."
-- Tim Berners Lee
"The Next Web" (2009)

#+begin_notes
How do we find the program that we are looking for?
Let me rephrase: How do we find the program that does the job for us?

What do we expect from computers?
We don't expect to program them: we expect to run a program and get the job done.

User experience question: when first confronted with a computer, how do we know
which program to run? => Tribal knowledge (e.g. VLC is famous because it's famous).

Speak for Guix-specific improvements, but also more general research.
#+end_notes

* Dotfiles, or "Yet another home-made service"

#+TODO: Take data from GitHub, gitlab "dotfiles" repositories
??? "dotfiles" repositories across GitHub, GitLab...

Average of ??? lines.

#+begin_notes
Show of hands: who has spent too much time on their dotfiles?

What is a dotfile really?  It's just another home-made service.

Just like a program, it gets the job done.  And when start thinking this way, we
start realizing that it's only a blurred line between services and packages.
#+end_notes

* First-class services

Or "The end of dotfiles!"

#+begin_notes
My claim: we can put an end to dotfiles!

Rephrase: An end to "egoistic un-reusable dotfiles".

Everyone can start upstreaming their dotfiles configurations and share them.

Dream: Just need to declare which program and services you want to use and your
are done.  This could tailor to your most specific needs.

Service example: daily backup of my data with rsync+ssh/vpn.
#+end_notes

* Example

# TODO: Finish service example
#+begin_src scheme
  (backup-service-type
   (backup-configuration
    (host "123.123.123.123")
    (port "8888")
    (method rsync+vpn)
    (folders
     '(("/path/folder1" "/target/destination1")
       ("/path/folder1" "/target/destination2")))))
#+end_src

# TODO: More examples?

* A flood of packages and services

Nix has some 40,000+ packages.

Guix is getting there: 12,000 as of FOSDEM 2020.

#+begin_notes
Services don't have well known names.

How do we find our way around this mess?

More general problem: search programs / services is hard.
#+end_notes

* GNU Guix and GNU Shepherd

- Can be installed everywhere.
- Shepherd services drag Guix dependent packages automatically.

* Problem 1: File search

SQLite databases from substitute servers.

* Problem 2: Package parameters

# TODO: Really talk about this?
"Gentoo USE flags"

Example: FFmpeg compiled with AAC encoding

* Problem 3: User interface

- Command line of course...
- ...But also GUI!

# TODO: Videos?  Demo with Helm?

#+begin_notes
Live, fuzzy search that "does what you mean."
Understands if you are looking for a service, file, application.
#+end_notes

* The Art of Searching

- À-la "web search-engine".
- Databases: Wikidata
- Smart search engines: Xapian?

#+begin_notes
Wikidata is a good way to factor the work between distributions.
#+end_notes

* Community contributions

# Mention Alternative To?

- Recommendations
- Number of downloads
- Ratings
- Tags?

#+begin_notes
We don't want to include tags in a permanent databases:
- Too subjective.
- Evolves over time depending on the latest trends.
#+end_notes