Re: X Configuration Interface for Debian
On Sat, 9 Nov 1996, John Goerzen wrote:
> I have seen RedHat and thought that its X configuration utility was nice.
>
> Debian doesn't have one.
>
> So I'd like to write one.
>
> It will be in Tcl/Tk+Tix. I've already got some framework for it and a few
> basic things already programmed in -- crontab, etc.
>
> I'd like somebody from Debian to contact me about it in e-mail
> (jgoerzen@complete.org). I have a few questions.
>
Well, I would like to help with this. Here are a couple of ideas I had
about it:-
1. Make the user-interface calls as generic as possible, so we can
make a version that will work with ncurses and X (tk).
2. Support .so-loading for extra configuration modules. This way,
packages can provide their own control panels (for example, a apache
control panel).
I'll also take this opportunity to suggest an addition to the packaging
standards: sub-packages. These would really be required for point 2 above
to work efficiently. Basically, you have separate 'control', 'postinst',
etc. files for each sub-package. However, subpackages are only installed
in certain conditions, and errors are not produced in other circumstances.
So, for example, we could have the normal gpm package, which also has a
sub-package 'gpm-emacs', which contains the t-mouse.el file, and it's
installation code, which depends on the GNU emacs package. If the user
installs gpm without emacs, this file is not installed. If they later
install emacs, it is automatically installed as well. If the user installs
gpm and emacs is already installed, the file is installed. If the user
later removes emacs, the subpackage is removed.
The main control file could contain a list of the sub-packages, for
example in a 'Sub-Packages:' line.
Comments?
--
Tom Lees <tom@lpsg.demon.co.uk>
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