[baby]

I think we’re used to tools using convention over configuration more and more, which is great, but as nix is trying to solve a different problem it is all about configuration, which makes it really hard to understand. Maybe it would help to have a GUI or a local webapp to sort of show the state of what you have and debug things… not sure.

[natrys]

I don't see how that addresses OP's problem, which is poor and confusing documentation (I felt the same too). Everytime I hit a snag and searched for an issue, there were never a comprehensive and centralized source of solution, rather a bunch of pages each with different holes in information sprinkled with outdated advices. I share the feeling that I was reverse engineering things that should just be plainly documented.

[baby]

Agree that documentation could be better, but as someone who has spent reading a lot of it I was still left with a sense of “how are things really glued together here in this nix project?”

[infogulch]

> convention over configuration

Hmm I guess the nix approach would be "convention as shared configuration"