Currently, many Tcl packages are found in pkgs/development/libraries/. Other programming languages have package sets like perl536Packages and python310Packages. I am not sure how to do this, but it seems helpful to add tcl86Packages or tclPackages. What needs done to make this happen?
1 Like
That’s done in cases where multiple versions (of python, perl, etc.) are to be supported in a single nixpkgs commit. Otherwise I don’t see why do it.
Size and whether or not you usually need the packages outside the package set are also concerns.
Even if we only supported one version of GHC, we wouldn’t dump the haskellPackages into pkgs for instance. Only other Haskell packages need the majority packages contained in haskellPackages and there’s, like, tonnes of them.
2 Likes
It also helps make the packages more discoverable, for example through the filters on the Nix package web search. I don’t see why random Tcl libraries should be scattered around when we could neatly organize them.
This may be a question for the Nixpkgs Architecture Team around @infinisil.
2 Likes
Is there someone else I need to ask?
I’ve noticed that some packages are organized in nixpkgs/pkgs/development/LANG-packages. Would it be possible to put the Tcl packages in a folder like that? Currently all my Tcl-related PRs are in the development/libraries folder because that’s where I found other Tcl packages.
Any thoughts @infinisil ?
@nat-418 Take a look at tclPackages: init (draft) by infinisil · Pull Request #235614 · NixOS/nixpkgs · GitHub 
2 Likes