Re: Configuration management, revision 3
On Wed, Jul 29, 1998 at 12:15:36AM +0200, Wichert Akkerman wrote:
> so we use a simple language where each command is exactly one line. A
> prelimary list of commands is:
I like everything about your proposal
I like everything about it, except the language. IMO it has the wrong
basic assumption, namely that the configuration module controls the
frontend like a programmer controls the machine (the language is
essentially astripped-down special-purpose BASIC). I would like the
language to be redesigned from scratch, with the assumption that the
module just _asks_ the frontend, and the frontend is free to either
1) echo back the defaults the module has provided,
2) return cached data or
3) ask the user.
Again, I refer to your earlier post comparing your scheme to SGML and
LaTeX; they both *describe*, not *command*. Here we need a
*descriptive* language.
The module should not need to know whether we are doing a
noninteractive batch upgrade or an interactive install or something
entirely different. It just wants to know something; it's the
frontend's job to fetch that information.
I'll post a sketch in a few days unless somebody else beats me to it.
Antti-Juhani
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Antti-Juhani Kaijanaho <gaia@iki.fi> ** <URL:http://www.iki.fi/gaia/> **
I can't seem to find a lowercase 'r' on my keyboard.
(Lee Davies in comp.unix.programmer on July 22, 1998)
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