Re: Caldera installation - something Debian should learn
On Sat, 24 Apr 1999, Craig Sanders wrote:
> > > with that one comment, i think you have guaranteed that debian won't
> > > take your config system at all seriously.
> >
> > I hope you're wrong.
>
> i hope i'm right. if you fail to see the flexibility and usefulness
> inherent in text files, then i can't see how it's possible for you to
> design a decent configuration system for unix...you're missing something
Well, what can I say to that? I hope you're wrong???
> fundamental to the unix way of doing things.
I accept your opinion. I don't argree.
> the fact is, you CAN engineer in robustness and backups etc into
> databases. that's true. however, you can't put back in the flexibility
> that you've sacrificed.
One of my other posts spoke to this.
> text files are essentially free-form, and comments can be left in them
> to provide instructions, commentary, and examples.
ditto.
> by contrast, databases are a rigid structure and a menu or GUI config
> tool is severely limited in that it can only do what someone has time to
install postgres and play with "pgsql"(I think it is). It's not what
I'd call a GUI. I'm not proposing a GUI for everything. I'm a strict
believer that command prompts are the fastest way to get stuff done.
But what command prompt is the fastest?
> program. In a text config file you can leave a human language comment
> saying "Do X if you want Y" or "uncomment the next line to do blah".
You can put that in the db as well.
> text files are cheap. they are flexible. they depend on an intelligent
> human being to handle and resolve error conditions.
What if the human is einstein? He was a pretty smart kid but would
he use windows NT or unix if he was alive today? A hyperbolic
example but you get the point.
> config tools are not cheap. they are useful for guiding novices into
> configuring basic functionality, but they are not flexible and they tend
> to get in the way of an experienced unix admin.
See command line stuff above.
> for debian to take any configuration tool seriously, it has to support
> novices without hampering experts. this means that it should be a
> front-end to text files, reading and parsing existing text files and
> generating new versions of text files as output.
I disagree.
> we've had this discussion many times on debian-devel and
> debian-admintool - if you're interested, check the archives.
I will thanks.
> > > unix runs on text files, whether hand-edited or generated by a
> > > program. that will never change.
> >
> > UNIX will change. Get used to it(paradoxically).
>
> unix changes all the time - it's an evolving system.
>
> unix runs on text files. that will never change.
We will end with the beginning -- I hope you're wrong.
+---------------------------------+-------------------------------------+
| R Garth Wood | Making waves... |
| Stormix Technologies Inc. | |
| rgwood@stormix.com | |
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