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Date:      Mon, 4 Feb 2002 03:19:19 -0800
From:      David Schultz <dschultz@uclink.Berkeley.EDU>
To:        Miguel Mendez <flynn@energyhq.homeip.net>
Cc:        Terry Lambert <tlambert2@mindspring.com>, pdfardy@mac.com, current@FreeBSD.ORG, stable@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: Junior Annoying Hacker Task
Message-ID:  <20020204031919.A17666@HAL9000.wox.org>
In-Reply-To: <20020203142130.08333347.flynn@energyhq.homeip.net>; from flynn@energyhq.homeip.net on Sun, Feb 03, 2002 at 02:21:30PM %2B0100
References:  <5F46C986-16DB-11D6-8CEC-00039359034A@mac.com> <3C5B3225.F04B9B18@mindspring.com> <20020202120725.A32535@energyhq.homeip.net> <3C5BCDAE.22E25BAA@mindspring.com> <20020203142130.08333347.flynn@energyhq.homeip.net>

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Thus spake Miguel Mendez <flynn@energyhq.homeip.net>:
> On Sat, 02 Feb 2002 03:29:50 -0800
> Terry Lambert <tlambert2@mindspring.com> wrote:
> 
> Hi Terry et al,
> 
> > Let me know the form you want the hierarchy to take, so
> > you can stick it into the GTK hierarchy thingy; I'll be
> > happy to crank out some quick yacc and lex code to do
> > the parsing of the file into that format for you.  A
> > structure definition, with links, and how you want it
> > linked, would be ideal.  8-).
> 
> I've been thinking about it and I'd like to provide two frontends, a GTK one and a ncurses one, what do you think?

This is getting pretty ambitious.  I'm not about to say that a
procedural interface to rc.conf wouldn't be nice, or that it couldn't
be done well, but when it comes down to it, what problem are we trying
to solve?

Certainly rc.conf supports a lot of options, and a hierarchical
arrangement would simplify things.  However, most people only need to
deal with a small subset of the options, and organization doesn't seem
to be a big issue.  Of course there's also the possibility that
someone could leave out a quotation mark and end up with a non-working
system, but that's rare and solvable with simpler tools, as has been
discussed.

Besides, both Microsoft and the linuxconf people have done far worse
than rc.conf---especially Microsoft.  Know what to do when a bad
update eats a VXD that isn't on the Windows CD?  :P

[I'm not subscribed to -current, so please CC me any replies if that's
where this thread has drifted.]

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