Re: Propossed Project: Odyssey
On Sun, Oct 28, 2001 at 05:24:30PM -0300, Daniel Toffetti wrote:
| > | > I meant a common metalanguage, so that it could be possible to
| > | > write one single application as interface to handle any config
| > | > file.
| >
| > | You should take a look at gconf and its derivatives. The idea is
| > | a common configuration/registry-like interface for applications
| > | and any number of different backends.
|
| This is more or less what I was trying to describe, thanks. Besides
| 'any number of different backends' it would be great to have (at least)
| one common data format, not just the interface, so that developers
| can specify the config options for their applications in that format.
|
| > | Damn. I had a link to some good gconf developer stuff (including
| > | rational), but I can't find it now...
| >
| > I'd like to see a rationale and an explanation of how this data is
| > stored peristently. I'm not sure I like the gconf idea. Just recall
| > the MS Windows' registry. One thing I _really_ like about *nix
| > systems is the ability to use my text editor to configure everything.
|
| But it doesn't need to be changed. I'm sure it's possible to define
| some plain-text format. Today I see config files using key=value, XML
| and other formats. It only takes to agree on some common standard and
| keep the plain text.
|
| > I also like including comments so that I can remember why I did a
| > certain thing or some syntax or option stuff so I don't have to pour
| > through the docs next time.
|
| This was one of my points. If you can define sort of a template for the
| config file, describing the possible values for each item, this is kind
| of 'self-describing' and helps to understand the configuration options.
It looks like gconf does what you want (Eric: thanks for the link).
That's not quite what I meant, though. I want to put _my_ comments in
the files. Comments that have meaning only for me and are not useful
for you. I may also want to have several mutually exclusive configs,
with all but one commented out. I have this in
/etc/network/interfaces on the laptop right now. I have eth0
configured for work, home, and school and I just switch around the
comment markers before running ifup. I like the functionality that
text files provide that a GUI just can't give you. BTW, can I
change the gconf-stored config with vim without some sort of breakage
(or ignoring) occuring? gconf looks good, as long as I can maintain
arbitrary comments in those xml files and if I can change them with
vim and it will seamlessly pick up those changes.
-D
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