emacs-overlay VS nix

Compare emacs-overlay vs nix and see what are their differences.

emacs-overlay

Bleeding edge emacs overlay [maintainer=@adisbladis] (by nix-community)
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emacs-overlay nix
34 372
459 10,879
2.4% 6.6%
10.0 10.0
6 days ago 3 days ago
Nix C++
- GNU Lesser General Public License v3.0 only
The number of mentions indicates the total number of mentions that we've tracked plus the number of user suggested alternatives.
Stars - the number of stars that a project has on GitHub. Growth - month over month growth in stars.
Activity is a relative number indicating how actively a project is being developed. Recent commits have higher weight than older ones.
For example, an activity of 9.0 indicates that a project is amongst the top 10% of the most actively developed projects that we are tracking.

emacs-overlay

Posts with mentions or reviews of emacs-overlay. We have used some of these posts to build our list of alternatives and similar projects. The last one was on 2024-01-09.
  • Flakes aren't real and cannot hurt you: using Nix flakes the non-flake way
    6 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 9 Jan 2024
    The project uses this overlay: https://github.com/nix-community/emacs-overlay

    What that means is if something is broken in Emacs, the community will fix it, and all I need to do is run `nix flake update` to grab the latest commit and then `nix run .#build-switch` to alter my system. Easy.

    Thanks for the heads-up on the 404s! I've fixed those links.

    In re: to org-agenda, I don't use that as much anymore. But I heavily, heavily using org-roam w/ org-roam-dailies everyday to build my own networked graph of notes. For tasks, nowadays I just use simple docs for projects and Asana to keep a catalog of everything.

  • NixOS&(Home-Manager) Flake/Overlays Help
    2 projects | /r/NixOS | 31 Jul 2023
    Im a newish NixOS user, Ive used it like 20 times before but always quit because I couldnt debug errors, trying not to give up for the 20th time this time lmao; so Ive been trying to learn how to use overlays & flakes for a couple of days now. The ones I want to use/enable are: - Emacs-Overlay - Spicetify-Nix
  • My First Impressions of Nix
    33 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 19 Jun 2023
  • Which package manager should I use?
    5 projects | /r/emacs | 12 Apr 2023
    Nix offers the same advantage through the use of emacs-overlay. Besides, Nixpkgs contains more Linux packages than any other distros. Depending on the user's needs, Nix is another option.
  • It looks like the kellyk Emacs PPA is no longer maintained. Are there any alternatives?
    2 projects | /r/emacs | 26 Feb 2023
    You can use this overlay to get the latest https://github.com/nix-community/emacs-overlay
  • Will any emacs package manager let me audit packages before installing them?
    4 projects | /r/emacs | 15 Feb 2023
    Depending on your goals, emacs-overlay is also worth a look.
  • dired navigation without infinite buffers
    5 projects | /r/emacs | 3 Feb 2023
    { pkgs ? import {} }: ((import (builtins.fetchTarball { url = "https://github.com/nix-community/emacs-overlay/archive/master.tar.gz"; })) pkgs pkgs).emacsGit
  • Installing Emacs 29 on Pop! OS
    2 projects | /r/emacs | 1 Jan 2023
    One option is to install Nix and use emacs-overlay.
  • How to use Emacs 29 Tree-sitter?
    12 projects | /r/emacs | 3 Dec 2022
    You can install Nix on your mac and use https://github.com/nix-community/emacs-overlay/, which supports all the existing tree-sitter-based major modes OOB.
  • Emacs 29 is nigh What can we expect?
    31 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 29 Nov 2022
    Its great to see both eglot and tree-sitter being merged. However, I am unhappy about the state of 'emacs configurations/distributions' right now. I have been using Doom Emacs, but the development is pretty much stalled there [0], and I don't think there is any distribution that is keeping up with these cutting-edge features (compared to the NeoVim ecosystem, let's say). Somehow it feels like I was seeing a lot more activity about Emacs configurations two-three years ago.

    > Compile EmacsLisp files ahead of time

    Ooh, this is interesting. Hoping to see a derivation in https://github.com/nix-community/emacs-overlay soon.

    [0] I am not complaining though as Doom was the main author's personal config from the get-go. I am just pointing out a void.

nix

Posts with mentions or reviews of nix. We have used some of these posts to build our list of alternatives and similar projects. The last one was on 2024-04-22.
  • Eelco Dolstra's leadership is corrosive to the Nix project
    6 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 22 Apr 2024
    > https://github.com/NixOS/nix/pull/9911#issuecomment-19252073...
  • I use NixOS for my home-server, and you should too!
    1 project | dev.to | 22 Apr 2024
    As we covered in my last post, NixOS is a amazing Linux distribution for creating stable and declared environments. Now while this is amazing for a desktop setup, it is also perfect for a home-server or home-lab.
  • Tvix – A New Implementation of Nix
    8 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 16 Apr 2024
    (Nix itself is slowly chugging along with Windows via MinGW - https://discourse.nixos.org/t/nix-on-windows/1113/108 and https://github.com/NixOS/nix/issues/1320 , for example.)
  • Colima k8s nix setup
    4 projects | dev.to | 16 Apr 2024
    Nix is a cross-platform package manager. It uses the nix programming language. Nix and NixOs are often used in the same context, but while the first is a package manager, the latter is a linux distribution based on nix.
  • NixOs - Your portable dev enviroment
    1 project | dev.to | 8 Apr 2024
    Today I want to talk to you about Nixos. What is it? Nixos is a declarative and reproducible OS, partly taking the words used on their own page. What does that mean?
  • Nix – A One Pager
    6 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 6 Apr 2024
    Software developers often want to customize:

    1. their home environments: for packages (some reach for brew on MacOS) and configurations (dotfiles, and some reach for stow).

    2. their development shells: for build dependencies (compilers, SDKs, libraries), tools (LSP, linters, formatters, debuggers), and services (runtime, database). Some reach for devcontainers here.

    3. or even their operating systems: for development, for CI, for deployment, or for personal use.

    Nix provision all of the above in the same language, with Nixpkgs, NixOS, home-manager, and devShells such as https://devenv.sh/. What's more, Nix is (https://nixos.org/):

    - reproducible: what works on your dev machine also works in CI in prod,

    - declarative: you version control and review your configurations and infrastructure as code, at a reasonable level of abstraction,

    - reliable: all changes are atomic with easy roll back.

  • Tools for Linux Distro Hoppers
    7 projects | dev.to | 27 Mar 2024
    Hopping from one distro to another with a different package manager might require some time to adapt. Using a package manager that can be installed on most distro is one way to help you get to work faster. Flatpak is one of them; other alternative are Snap, Nix or Homebrew. Flatpak is a good starter, and if you have a bunch of free time, I suggest trying Nix.
  • Ask HN: Could Nix make crypto mining more efficient?
    1 project | news.ycombinator.com | 1 Mar 2024
    - it reduces bloat, because you can generate an environment or OS image with only the software needed to run a specific program or service

    My guess is that a big efficiency gain would come from the second point, because you don't waste CPU on code that you don't use.

    Does this make sense? Has anyone explored this?

    [0]: https://nixos.org

  • Go + Hypermedia - A Learning Journey (Part 1)
    6 projects | dev.to | 23 Feb 2024
    1) Setting up the development environment - I currently use devcontainers for most things, but may also dig into nix -> isolated, portable, repeatable development environment 2) Exploring Echo - understand routing, requests, response, etc. 3) Incorporate Templ - integration with Echo, template composition, etc. 4) Integrating TailwindCSS - config for use with Echo/Templ, development cycle, deployment, etc. 5) Add in HTMX - endpoints, template structure, concepts, etc. 6) hyperscript for interactivity - client side interactivity
  • Nixing Technological Lock In
    1 project | news.ycombinator.com | 18 Feb 2024
    "Your greatest challenge lies ahead -- and downwards..."

    Oh, wait a second, my bad, that's the quote on the box cover for Zork I: (

    https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/ac/Zork_I_box_ar...

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zork

    )

    What you really wanted was a link to where you could download Nix/NixOS -- and/or learn more about it!

    Here ya go!

    https://nixos.org/

    "Your greatest challenge lies ahead -- and downwards..."

    :-) :-)

    I say all of the above in the spirit of humor -- and as a NixOS user and fan!

    (But yes, there is a learning curve to it, so yes, learning Nix/NixOS could be a challenge!)

    ((But you're a bright person, you have Google and ChatGPT to assist you, and you like challenges!))

What are some alternatives?

When comparing emacs-overlay and nix you can also consider the following projects:

Home Manager using Nix - Manage a user environment using Nix [maintainer=@rycee]

asdf - Extendable version manager with support for Ruby, Node.js, Elixir, Erlang & more

flake-utils - Pure Nix flake utility functions [maintainer=@zimbatm]

distrobox - Use any linux distribution inside your terminal. Enable both backward and forward compatibility with software and freedom to use whatever distribution you’re more comfortable with. Mirror available at: https://gitlab.com/89luca89/distrobox

use-package - A use-package declaration for simplifying your .emacs

void-packages - The Void source packages collection

lsp-mode - Emacs client/library for the Language Server Protocol

flatpak - Linux application sandboxing and distribution framework

chemacs2 - Emacs version switcher, improved

homebrew-emacs-plus - Emacs Plus formulae for the Homebrew package manager

poetry2nix - Convert poetry projects to nix automagically [maintainer=@adisbladis]

guix - Read-only mirror of GNU Guix — pull requests are ignored, see https://guix.gnu.org/en/manual/en/guix.html#Submitting-Patches instead