[lug] GUI interfaces and system configuration

[J. Wayde Allen]

On Wed, 20 Jun 2001, D. Stimits wrote:

> I wasn't thinking of dumbing down linuxconf, so much as making an
> extension tool for man pages.

Sorry, poor typing on my part.  I understood what you meant, and agreed
with you.  

My "dumbed down" comment was intended to apply to the way most GUI
interfaces are designed where they try to minimize the possibilities to
make the click path more or less obvious.  In other words
oversimplification for the sake of making a cleaner looking GUI is a
problem that gets you back to the problem of "you can't get there from
here" syndrome that plagues many of the commercial OS's.  I think your
suggestion might be a way around this.

> Think of it as a specialized man page indexing system with a
> suggestion and editing extension. The goal would not be to dumb down
> any interface, but to provide something to prod the manual file editor
> along...making it more organized for the person that wants to
> configure by hand, but doesn't know exactly all of the details.

Yes, that sounds interesting to me.  I like the idea of keeping all the
cards on the table so-to-speak.  I also like the idea of indicating what
files need/will be changed.  In particular, I like the idea of an
organizational tool such as this that wouldn't modify the underlying /etc
config file structure.  It should read these files just as the programs
that they were designed for would read them.  There shouldn't be any
pre-defined states that this tool would use other than the states set in
the config files.  That way, you could edit the config files with vi or
this tool without worrying that it would somehow modify your vi tweaks.

OK, while we're at it I'd also like to have my cake and eat it too
<smirk>.

- Wayde
  (wallen at lug.boulder.co.us)