Date: Wed, 12 Feb 2003 11:15:39 -0500 (EST) From: Garrett Wollman <wollman@lcs.mit.edu> To: Wes Peters <wes@softweyr.com> Cc: arch@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: syslog.conf syntax change (multiple program/host specifications) Message-ID: <200302121615.h1CGFdGG025691@khavrinen.lcs.mit.edu> In-Reply-To: <200302121521.33506.wes@softweyr.com> References: <20030210114930.GB90800@melusine.cuivre.fr.eu.org> <200302120632.36583.wes@softweyr.com> <200302121411.h1CEBRSe025071@khavrinen.lcs.mit.edu> <200302121521.33506.wes@softweyr.com>
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<<On Wed, 12 Feb 2003 15:21:33 +0000, Wes Peters <wes@softweyr.com> said:
> So you're preferring the software over the human operator.
I would not necessarily jump to that conclusion. What I want to
eschew is a proliferation of lots of little languages, each one subtly
different, such that users are forced to learn all of them. We
already have:
foocap
fstab
group
inetd.conf files
manpath.config
master.passwd
named.conf and dhcpd.conf
newsyslog.conf
nsswitch.conf
ntp.conf
pam.d/*
passwd
pccard.conf
ppp.conf
{rc,periodic}.conf
shells and ftpusers
ssh{,d}_config
syslog.conf
ttys
Every single one of these has a different syntax that the admin must
learn in addition to the relevant semantics, and which any sort of
front-end or configuration-analysis tool must be able to interpret, in
order to do anything useful with the programs they control. The
benefit of something like XML (or Lisp, for that matter) is that,
while still providing for functionally significant differences, the
*lexical* structure is identical across many functions -- and this
makes it much easier to use other tools (like structured editors) to
maintain and document the files.
Yes, XML syntax is pretty hateful -- but because it is lexically
regular, my editor can do much of the work for me. It can do even
more of the work when the XML is coupled with a DTD so that it
understands more of the structure.
-GAWollman
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