nt/nt/primitives

Primitives - /nt/primitives

All expressions in the /nt/primitives directory should have no dependencies on NixTypes because /nt/primitives is the dependency of NixTypes! However for consistency in the development process /nt/primitives is structured using the Mix Module subsystem (/nt/mix).

"But Emile..." I hear you say! How can primitives be a Mix module if Mix depends on primitives?? Welp I'm sure I could have done some cool exploit of lazy evaluation in recursion, but I was alas lazy... So the solution is they can't... ;-; But they can be pretty close!

Instead we have /nt/primitives/bootstrap! Which provides a miniature dependency-free standard library. import ./nt/primitives/bootstrap/default.nix is passed as to import ./nt/mix which is then passed to import ./nt.

Most importantly, /nt/primitives/bootstrap/default.nix contains the function bootstrap:: Path | List | Attrs | Function -> Attrs:

# et voilà!
let
  this = bootstrap {inherit this bootstrap;} [
    {
      std = ./std/bootstrap.nix;
      types = ./types/bootstrap.nix;
      parse = ./parse/bootstrap.nix;
    }
  ];
in
  this;

~~!!KABOOM !!~~

Now our primitives have a primitive module system!

The init process looks like this:

# REF: flake.nix
{
  outputs = _: let
    # Step 1: Bootstrap and blast off (*zooommmmm whoooosshhhhh pppppeeeeeeewww*)
    bootstrap = import ./nt/primitives/bootstrap;
    # Step 2: Lie to Mix about its real identity (it's not ready for the truth...)
    mix = import ./nt/mix {this = bootstrap;};
  in
    # Step 3: Actually import NixTypes
    import ./nt {inherit mix;};
    # Step 4: Like and subscripe!!1!11!!!!!
}