Re: Caldera installation - something Debian should learn
>>>>> On Fri, 23 Apr 1999 11:36:06 +0100
>>>>> "Dave" == Dave Swegen <dave@recursive.prestel.co.uk> wrote:
Dave> On Thu, Apr 22, 1999 at 20:31 -0500, David Welton wrote:
[...attribution a bit screwed up, I think...]
>> > In fact I believe that's their most glaring weakness. Enevitably
>> > popular software has more and more parsers that read and write it's
>> > config files. Note that they are DIFFERENT parsers(not equivalent
>> > ones). [...]
>>
>> It would be nice to use standard embeddable languages, such as Guile,
>> Tcl, Perl, Python or what have you. [...]
[...]
Dave> [...] XML [...]
Yes! Imagine being able to configure a machine by pointing Mozilla at
<file:///etc/> and choosing items from menus (I'm thinking of XSL at
this point). If you don't like the pointy-clicky admin thing, you
could fall back on Lynx, or your trusty $EDITOR.
The disadvantage, of course, is that *every* program would have to be
ported to use XML as its config file format. Who fancies tackling
sendmail? Upstream changes will also need to be tracked: this is a
seriously big job. I reckon Unix has just too much legacy data in the
form of hard-won config files to be able to discard it, however
laudable that objective might be. It seems to me that XML (or
anything else) across the board is going to stay a pipe dream for the
foreseeable future. This is not, of course, a reason for not trying...
--
Robin Stephenson
Screw Cap On Tightly
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