From owner-freebsd-hackers Wed Jun 24 01:24:04 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id BAA05445 for freebsd-hackers-outgoing; Wed, 24 Jun 1998 01:24:04 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from shell.futuresouth.com (shell.futuresouth.com [198.78.58.18]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id BAA05408 for ; Wed, 24 Jun 1998 01:23:54 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from fullermd@shell.futuresouth.com) Received: (from fullermd@localhost) by shell.futuresouth.com (8.8.8/8.8.8) id DAA28859; Wed, 24 Jun 1998 03:23:41 -0500 (CDT) Message-ID: <19980624032341.11634@futuresouth.com> Date: Wed, 24 Jun 1998 03:23:41 -0500 From: "Matthew D. Fuller" To: "Jordan K. Hubbard" Cc: Peter van Heusden , freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Adding a new user interface to FreeBSD administration References: <19980623194829.05384@futuresouth.com> <8919.898663724@time.cdrom.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Mailer: Mutt 0.88 In-Reply-To: <8919.898663724@time.cdrom.com>; from Jordan K. Hubbard on Tue, Jun 23, 1998 at 09:48:44PM -0700 Sender: owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG On Tue, Jun 23, 1998 at 09:48:44PM -0700, Jordan K. Hubbard woke me up to tell me: > > So, the first step is to write scripts/programs to create/edit the > > various config files: pppconfig, maybe some nice wrappers around pw, > > syslogconf, even a profileconf and cshconf, heck, let's complicate things > > more and make a rc.confconf. Just find every config file that people > > Eeek. I think this might have been a transitional approach of value > some 4-5 years ago, but nowadays we have namespace pollution and the > fact that front-ending things in this fashion is something which > proved its limitations and went out of fashion almost a decade ago. > If we're going to do something now, let's stick with 90's techniques > at least. :-) Well, if namespace pollution is the problem, then write the scripts as an addon package, and when we integrate them, just put them together into one big program: # sysconfig -t {ppp|uucp|network|syslog|etc} --other_options I like the 3 layer approach, because it caters to 3 groups of people: 1) config file: know what you're doing, just want to do it 2) script: know what you're doing, don't know the format 3) cutesy: don't [yet] know what you're doing. The hope is thus that you still have files to edit directly if you like doing things that way (me! me!), you have a nice frontend if you're not sure what you're doing, and you have a script in the middle. It's easy to tell someone a command line to a script to solve a problem; it's a lot harder to guide them through a GUI or to tell them what to edit in the config file. This approach has just been waiting for a quiet, rainy night. Are you saying you wouldn't use it if I wrote it? ;) *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* | FreeBSD; the way computers were meant to be | * "The only reason I'm burning my candle at both ends, is * | that I haven't figured out how to light the middle yet."| * fullermd@futuresouth.com :-} MAtthew Fuller * | http://keystone.westminster.edu/~fullermd | *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message