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by mixedCase 1533 days ago
If it's Rust, you can use https://github.com/oxalica/rust-overlay to get any version you want very easily without pinning an instance of nixpkgs just for it.

asdf does not allow you to keep three different versions of the same language, so I'm not sure how that compares? It's not super-trivial to do in Nix, but at least you can do it.

asdf is also no different than Nix when it comes to minor/major versions. You're at the mercy of what the plugin does, other than that you have to create your own plugin from scratch or make a fork. Nix has the option to patch things up more easily at least.
1 comments
viraptor 1533 days ago
> asdf does not allow you to keep three different versions of the same language

Sure it does. You can have any number installed and either switch by changing the tools version file, setting it for your shell, or referencing the right path directly.

> You're at the mercy of what the plugin does

Again theory vs practice. In theory, sure, it depends on the plugin. In practice, almost every plugin lists every single released version to choose from. Which is much different from nix where the official choices are limited and you have to work to enable the rest.

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mixedCase 1533 days ago
> You can have any number installed and either switch by changing the tools version file

Oh, that's cheating :) Nix can do the same thing! Derivations are just kept in the store until you garbage collect them. You can also configure multiple versions at the same time to present you with multiple binaries, which is what I was referring to.

> Again theory vs practice. In theory, sure, it depends on the plugin. In practice, almost every plugin lists every single released version to choose from. Which is much different from nix where the official choices are limited and you have to work to enable the rest.

In practice, nixpkgs supports every maintained version of most tools. Certainly far more tools than asdf can ever hope to maintain. If not, there's an overlay or flake out there to support it. Can you come out with specific examples and a usecase?

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