NixCon 2020: Online Edition

Meet Nickel: better configuration for less
10-17, 13:00–13:05 (UTC), Main Stream

A quick presentation of Nickel, a general configuration language which is inspired from Nix expressions to which it adds some cool features.


Have you ever wished once that you could use the Nix language for something else than Nix ? To write a small project-specific script, or to generate a configuration when having to deal with horrendous YAML templating languages ? Nix may have its flaws, but it uses a simple yet powerful language - fundamentally, a lazy JSON with higher-order functions - that could very well be used to generate other configurations than Nix packages. In this short talk, I present the Nickel configuration language, which is an ongoing effort to make a standalone offspring of the Nix language , and while doing so, takes the opportunity to add new capabilities to the language.

After a PhD in computer science , I worked as a freelance fullstack developer for some time. I recently joined Tweag where I got the chance to dive into the awesome world of Nix. In life, I love all aspects of food, climbing, and enjoying nature in general.