RFC all-packages inherit descriptive list

[happysalada]

Issue description

in the all-packages.nix there are places where there is a inherit with a long list. Examples are
https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/master/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix#L2052
https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/master/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix#L10077
and
https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/master/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix#L11599

To be sure, we are talking about something that looks like

inherit (beam.interpreters)
    erlang erlangR23 erlangR22 erlangR21 erlangR20 erlangR19 erlangR18
    erlang_odbc erlang_javac erlang_odbc_javac erlang_basho_R16B02
    elixir elixir_1_11 elixir_1_10 elixir_1_9 elixir_1_8 elixir_1_7;

It does feel like there would be a way to do a recursive inherit, however I haven't found a way.

I have 2 questions

• Is there a way to do a recursive inherit
• Even if there was, what would be the prefered coding style?
  I personally prefer outputs being listed clearly, it's easier for other people to grep. However it can feel tedious to other maintainers to list everything explicitely.

The reason I am asking is that there is a discussion about it, and it doesn't really feel it belongs in the PR.

Sorry if this feels like bike-shedding.

@SuperSandro2000 don't really know what tags to add and who to involve here.

[stale]

I marked this as stale due to inactivity. → More info