Bruno,

Bruno Haible wrote:
>> (Speaking as a user, I'd be annoyed to the point of switching 
>> if 
>> my distro installed ‘binutils’ when asked for ‘gcc’.)
>
> Well, 'guix install emacs' installs more than emacs as well:
> graphviz, ghostscript, python, fftw, cups, ...

Oh, we're talking about different things then.

Installing (in any sense) emacs will add its dependencies to the 
store (your ‘install’), but doesn't propagate them into the 
profile (my ‘install’):

  ~ λ guix environment --pure --ad-hoc emacs
  ~ λ dot
  bash: dot: command not found

I tend to avoid the unqualified term ‘install’ on Guix for this 
reason.  Sorry for the confusion!

Kind regards,

T G-R