development.org

Structure

Architecture

TODO: expand on this general outline

Components:

• Form Generator
• State Manager
• API
• Parser

Form generator

• convert options “tree” and type spec into option selection heirarchy
• create the appropriate forms for editing value based on type

State Manager

• Connect user actions to form / data model changes
• Record state changes to memory

API

• read data from parser, convert into sensible data structures
• write data

Parser

• Language Server Protocol Client
• rnix-parser handler and unsafeGetAttrPos evaluator

Files

(TODO: update)

• load.sh: Build release.nix and store as parsable json.
• api.py: Retrieve release option tree and query.
• tree.py: Data structure for storing and querying option tree.
• gui.py: Start nix-gui and load all components including the main functionality - the option tree explorer.
• heirarchale_widgets.py: Widgets to recursively navigate the option tree structure via list-views and tab-views.
• option_widgets.py: Render widgets for editing configuration based on the type of the option.
• richtext.py: Helper to render rich text in QT.
• icons/: Icons used in the GUI.

Edit Handling

Case: A field is edited

• The field contents change, but nothing happens internally

Case: A field loses focus

• A signal is sent to the status bar to display the change
• A signal is sent to the parent to mark the change with an asterisk
• A signal is sent to the backend to record the history of changes

Case: The type of a field changes

• A signal

Related

Projects

• https://github.com/pmiddend/nixos-manager
• https://blog.matejc.com/blogs/myblog/graphical-ui-for-nix
• https://github.com/chriskiehl/Gooey

Discussions

• https://old.reddit.com/r/NixOS/comments/o6807i/nixgui_work_in_progress_configure_your_system/
• NixOS/nixpkgs#21662
• NixOS/nixpkgs#15573
• https://discourse.nixos.org/t/is-anyone-working-on-a-gui-tool-to-manage-packages/5540/2
• https://discourse.nixos.org/t/user-friendly-nixos-distro/1348/3
• https://old.reddit.com/r/NixOS/comments/jag2k1/do_you_think_nixos_could_be_positioned_as_one_of/
• https://old.reddit.com/r/NixOS/comments/cu4dle/should_nix_have_a_gui/

Inspiration

• Intuitive controls, good search functionality
• Good Widgets and layout
• Good information display
• Pretty layout
• Pretty layout
• Good time(/zone) settings screen

Credit

Thanks to the many #qt and #nixos users on libera.chat, and users of the NixOS Matrix server (#community:nixos.org) for answering a a myriad of questions about qt, nix, and nix-eval-lsp’s behavior.

Attribution

Icons are from https://publicdomainvectors.org/, wikimedia commons, https://svgrepo.com, and https://icon-icons.com/icon/Diff/132439