* Rewrite "Set up development environment"
The previous version is specific to Python as it uses
`buildPythonApplication` instead of `mkShell`.
This one is more general but maintains the same Python Flask web
application example.
* Update pinning-nixpkgs to use 22.11
Co-authored-by: Valentin Gagarin <valentin.gagarin@tweag.io>
In the current text its not even for me clear what it is referring to. This rewrite tries to give more examples for each concept of the language.
Co-authored-by: Valentin Gagarin <valentin.gagarin@tweag.io>
most importantly, derivations are not a special data type, but only
a certain kind of attribute set with two magic attributes.
we don't go into the details of the magic here, because it's really hard
to explain concisely. it would only distract from the surface feature
we care about here: composition through store paths.
it was reported that the list example was confusing and lacked
explanation.
moved the example to function application, and reduced the syntax notes
to "notes on whitespace". moved the emphasis on the goals of this
tutorial to its proper place in the introduction.
it's good to leave the whitespace notes in the introductory part,
because they are unspecific and clearly belong to the "don't worry, it
may look weird, but that doesn't matter" part.
it was reported that the NixOS configuration is confusing, because
information is lacking to understand what it does.
added another note reminding of this tutorial's objective.
added section headings to give hints where to look next.
Due to an Sphinx issue[1], linkcheck fails on GitHub anchors for
GitHub rendered documents.
This change rewrites the anchors to the ones that can be verified by
linkcheck.
[1]: https://github.com/sphinx-doc/sphinx/issues/9016
This is the point in the tutorial where I started playing around with
paths and antiquotation in a `nix repl` session and got seriously
confused for a few minutes...
Co-authored-by: Valentin Gagarin <valentin.gagarin@tweag.io>
most importantly, the "elements of programming" approach is understood
in a broader sence. we don't really deal with operators and just subsume
them under functions.
they are the least significant combination of frequency of occurrence
and peculiarity, even if they're really handy.
but remember, the goal is to help people *understand* Nix language code,
not write it effectively.
