Re: Offer of help
>
> > >
> > > Packages should be able to install without any question asked. Default
> > > config files must be provided as well as default config databases.
> >
> > Agreed. However, in a very few cases an answer from the user is needed.
> > For example, you must know the hostname of the computer and the type
> > of connection it has. Using a default value is a wrong choice.
>
> hostname="a_poorly_maintained_debian_system"
> connection="none"
No, no. That's a wrong choice. If you install 150 systems at the same time
you will have 150 computers called "a_poorly_maintained_debian_system" and
then you will have to go to all 150 of them and change it. That's very
inconvenient and it's one of the main points of having an admintool at all.
Furthermore, if you set connection=none by default, then no one of those
150 computers will have a network connection and you will have to physically
sit at each of them to change their hostnames. That's a serious flaw.
The only valid procedure is asking the question to the user. Nobody else
can make a right guess. However, the question maybe redirected to a predefined
table/database, which may even be in another computer. In that case the
user does not see the question at install time, but he must have created
the table before installing.
That was the main motivation for Wichert's proposal: the virtual database.
I have implemented it in my config generator and I think any admintool must
implement it.
> There is a much more important thing to think about than missing
> defaults: Broken configs. If a program finds that his config is
> broken, it can tell the system that it is and next time the config
> frontend is invoked (when something is installed or on purpose) the
> package will eigther go through its config again or have a big red
> warning in front of it notifying the user.
>
I don't understand what you mean exactly here. Could you explain it a little
more?
> > This is what Windows does. I have an ethernet connection and still Windows
> > tells me sometimes that I need to configure my modem to connect to the
> > Internet. I guess it assumes that a direct ethernet connection is not the
> > right way to connect to the Internet...
>
> Which realy sux, because I can't configure the modem on the
> universities comps, so some network stuff doesn't work, even though
> they have a 10 MBit connection.
Yes, it sucks because Windows assumes "connection=modem", which is as bad as
"connection=none".
Fernando.
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