Russ Allbery <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > This seems like obviously bad advice to me. How is one expected to handle > something like specification of a default paper size unless there's a user > switch somewhere? > > Surely the GNU coding standards aren't arguing that editing a cryptic > configuration file is an improvement over a configure switch?
In my experience, a cryptic configuration file is almost always an improvement over a configure switch. To change a configure switch, I have to find the program's source code and figure out and go through its configuration, compilation, and installation procedure. To change a configuration file, I just have to find it and edit it, and if it's well-written then it even has a comment above each option explaining my choices. This is especially important when the software is provided in a pre-packaged form. For the purpose of a Debian binary package, for instance, the end user will not want to retrieve the source code and recompile just to change something that should be in a configuration file. -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] - [EMAIL PROTECTED] - [EMAIL PROTECTED] - [EMAIL PROTECTED]
