Date: Wed, 22 Jan 1997 17:23:24 +1030 (CST) From: Michael Smith <msmith@atrad.adelaide.edu.au> To: davidn@unique.usn.blaze.net.au (David Nugent) Cc: msmith@atrad.adelaide.edu.au, hosokawa@mt.cs.keio.ac.jp, jkh@time.cdrom.com, keithl@wakko.gil.net, chat@freebsd.org, config@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Kernel configuration Message-ID: <199701220653.RAA14007@genesis.atrad.adelaide.edu.au> In-Reply-To: <Mutt.19970122150121.davidn@labs.blaze.net.au> from David Nugent at "Jan 22, 97 03:01:22 pm"
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David Nugent stands accused of saying:
> Michael Smith writes:
> > option "GPL_MATH_EMULATE" {
> > description "Support for systems with no math coprocessor"
> > description "(Improved but GPL-licensed version)"
> > excludes {option MATH_EMULATE}
> > header opt_math_emulate.h
> > }
> >
> > I realise that we're arguing for syntaxes friendly to our chosen
> > implementation languages here; I just feel that the SGML-like syntax
> > is a lot harder to work with.
>
> Agreed. The above is pretty clear, less verbose and much easier on
> the eyes. I quite like it. :)
Thankyou 8) I've been using that style of syntax in our current software
for about 18 months now (in case you were wondering whether I'm just
making this up as I go along 8), and it's proven to be very useful.
Just digressing on the Tcl side for a moment, you define :
proc option {name attr} {
global Options;
lappend Options(list) $name;
while {$attr != ""} {
set token [lvarpop attr];
switch -- $token {
description {
lappend Options($name:description) [lvarpop attr];
}
...
and then you can test for a description somewhere else :
if {[info exists Options($name:description)]} {
...
}
> One other thing I would add is some form of option "grouping", though,
You could group based on the file the options are defined in, or you
could add a 'group' attribute, perhaps even with a heirachial syntax
if you thought it was worth it.
> and perhaps even a way of nesting options (which might even include
> support for device-specific flags).
Note the 'sio' example, which specifically implies (sic) this; the
'requires {device sio}' means that the option makes no sense without
the 'sio' device configured (and thus would ideally not be visible at
all). Likewise you could nest options using the 'requires' attribute.
> Perhaps the standard metaconfig file could be in English, and
> supplimental description files supplied for other languages.
That actually sounds fairly reasonable. In situations where
only english text was available, the tool could fall back
on that as a default. (eg. I distribute a new driver with a .ki
file but not a .kim (message translation) file)
> David Nugent - Unique Computing Pty Ltd - Melbourne, Australia
--
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