newt-gtk for installation procedure

[AGX <agx@linux.it>]

Hi,
i'm Antonio Gallo makers of the 'Bad Penguin'(tm) GNU/Linux distribution.
Currently i'm a member of ILS (Italian Linux Society) togheter with
Marco D'Itri and Alessandro Rubini.

Marco D'Itri invited me to drop my "run-for-glory-alone" project
and to join Debian.

I've developed a lot of configuration tools and have some idea on the
installation process.

My goal is now to drop from a distribution with:
 - its own installer
 - its own packaging system
 - its own policy etc
and to port all my configurations script to Debian.



I have a questions:

i've developed "libgringo" a library that implement widgets that are
displayed in console with ncurses and with Gtk under X.
I choosed this because when i started (4 years ago) i didn't know
nor about Debian, nor about Newt/Slang.

The widgets with ncurses are implemented by myself but lacks lists 
and grids and i planned to add them when i have a some spare time.

... but ...

i did notice that newt have already has too, and are quite easy to use.
I would like to know if THERE IS SOMEBODY around WHO STARTED A
SIMILAR LIBRARY/WRAPPER to the mine that uses newt inplace of ncurses 
for the console.

I would like to know this before to start porting libgringo 
to newt and dropping ncurses.

Why i need those 'libgringo' ???

In my distribution i've developed a 'controlpanel' entirely with shell
script and dialog. I developed libgringo to replace it with a graphical
interface that run both in console, both in X-Window.

It include also a powerfull usermanager, i want to port it to Debian.
Before i like to rewrite it in c, instead of shell script, to make it
work under both environment.

Also, i need this to write an installation program that work also in 
X-Window.


Finally, i would like to tank you, if you can point me to the right
place where talk about enhancing the configuration of somethings,
like plug'n'pray or soundcards. Is there a person, a ML, or should
i contact the mantainer of the appropriate packages ?

Thank you in advance.
My best regards,
	Antonio Gallo
	aka AGX
	www.badpenguin.org