Are you hiring? This sounds like a really cool space and product to work on.

Whoa. This is very, very cool. I love TypeScript and its type system, and started using Nix in the past few years and wished it could have something similar.

Who watches the watcher? i.e. verify.ps1 is a separate program that needs to be verified somehow.

I’m genuinely not trying to be combative here — I’m just noticing that a lot of your choices seem pretty unconventional, and I’m trying to understand the reasoning behind them, because they are making it hard to interact with you and your project.

- You’re using Nix (which I am familiar with, and why I am here).

- Instead of Git, you’re using “darcs,” which I haven’t encountered before.

- Instead of Flakes, you built Nixtamal.

- For communication, you’re using an XMPP chatroom, which I’m also not familiar with. (Same with MUC — that’s new to me as well.)

Which leaves me with the one experience I'm able to have, in the one place I'm able to share it with you (here):

  % nix run "github:toastal/nixpkgs?ref=nixtamal-init#nixtamal" -- nixtamal set-up
  error: Cannot build '/nix/store/6s9ich4n35c8dna24vvz44ynxwdiyvy8-ocaml5.3.0-nixtamal-0.1.1-beta.drv'.
        Reason: builder failed with exit code 1.
        Output paths:
          /nix/store/x1qgdd1p9q3y2bsr79cgic51m5cgbc5f-ocaml5.3.0-nixtamal-0.1.1-beta
        Last 25 log lines:
        >   [OK]          Input             3   Manifest frozen Pijul of KDL.
        >   [OK]          Input             4   Manifest frozen Pijul sameshape.
        >   [OK]          Input             5   Patch is_local_path detection.
        >   [OK]          Input             6   Patch strip_file_prefix.
        >   [OK]          Input             7   Manifest input codec sameshape.
        >   [OK]          Input             8   Patch source detection.
        >   [OK]          Silo              0   Generation sameshape.
        >   [OK]          Silo              1   GC Cutoff Math/cap=2, gen=5.
        >   [OK]          Silo              2   GC Cutoff Math/cap=10, gen=2 (underflow).
        >   [OK]          Silo              3   GC Cutoff Math/cap=0 (keep all).
        >   [OK]          Silo              4   GC Cutoff Math/cap=2, gen=14 (e hex).
        >   [OK]          Silo              5   GC Cutoff Math/cap=1, gen=1.
        >   [OK]          Lockfile          0   0 inputs & 0 patches.
        >   [OK]          Lockfile          1   2 inputs & 2 patches.
        >   [OK]          Lockfile          2   Local patches in default.nix.
        >
        > Full test results in `/nix/var/nix/builds/nix-build-ocaml5.3.0-nixtamal-0.1.1-beta.drv-6016-3976314062/fetchdarcs/_build/default/test/_build/_tests/Nixtamal'.
        > Test Successful in 21.472s. 18 tests run.
        > Running phase: installPhase
        > Warning: Cache directories could not be created: Read-only file system;
        > disabling cache
        > Hint: Make sure the directory /homeless-shelter/.cache/dune/db/temp can be
        > created
        > Error: Program codesign not found in the tree or in PATH
        > Hint: codesign should be part of the macOS installation
        For full logs, run:
          nix log /nix/store/6s9ich4n35c8dna24vvz44ynxwdiyvy8-ocaml5.3.0-nixtamal-0.1.1-beta.drv

A contributor sent me a fix for the Darwin build as I don’t own any machine of this architecture & cannot test. It’s merged into Nixpkgs unstable.

I have tried a lot of technologies & chose the ones I like for on their own merits without following ‘trends’ as they should be used more.

Darcs predates Git & does a lot of things better than Git (plus I want to dog food supporting it); Pijul does great things too! If Nixpkgs has fetchers + prefetchers, there should be a tool that can support users not supported by the builtins (which is only URLs, archives, Git, & Mercurial). Hopefully we can get the Fossil prefetch script merged too for support. Supporting these alternatives is a part of the premise. Flakes can never support this—& they do not seem to want to accept any fetchers despite a few attempts due to the maintenance burden.

XMPP is a reliable, lightweight, decentralized messaging platform commonly, but not exclusively, used for chat. It offers more features than IRC & runs using 10x less resources compared to something like Matrix so I can in good faith recommend self-hosting your own node. I would like to set up an IRC gateway that works at some point, & if ProcessOne adds fuller gateway support to Ejabberd for the MUC, I will enable it despite not caring for Matrix. There definitely isn’t going to be any Discord option.

Odd thing to proclaim, as Nix and Dagger-orchestrated containers are not 1:1?

they don't have to be 1:1 for me to have all the features I need

I don't see the value of adding nix to my toolbox when

1. I already have tools that do the same job just fine

2. The packages are a mess, I've looked at several of my daily cli tools and they are all wrong (except one, which is missing completely)

Which packages did you notice that had issues? I'd like to take a look.

First-glance feedback is that Nix (https://nixos.org/) is _way_ too established a technology to use its name in another software project, if only for SEO reasons, and I'd recommend coming up with a new moniker.

NixOS is what you are describing: https://nixos.org

Just in case you are unaware, these build issues are entirely solvable by defining a Nix flake for your project, resulting in a repeatable, reproducible build every time:

https://nixos.org/ https://wiki.nixos.org/wiki/Flakes

> build issues are entirely solvable

Until they're not, at which point if you're not a nix+flake wizard you're completely at sea :)