Re: [desktop] Unix configuration nightmare

[Susan Kleinmann <sgk@kleinmann.com>]

Hello,

On Wed, Oct 23, 2002 at 05:16:23PM -0500, Branden Robinson wrote:
> You can tell people to put their shit outside the debconf area, but they
> won't.  

Here are two peripherally related suggestions that might help:

1.  There is at least one other package that has a do-not-configure-here
component to its file: grub.  I wonder if it might be possible to find
some commonalities between the way grub tells users to keep their mits
off of various sections, and the way the XF86Config file does it?  Just
using the same words or the same case or the same placement in the file
for the warning might be a start.  My point is that if there is a common 
set of characteristics in several programs that tell users to keep out,
then a broader group of users might come to expect and know to look for 
"do-not-touch" sections.
    It would also help users if the utilities that manipulated files
that were only partially user-changeable had common names, or some
other common features.

2.  It might be interesting to develop either colorized vim or emacs
modes that were invoked when editing only-partially-editable files, such
that the "hands-off" part appeared, say, in some distinct color.

Cheers,
Susan