On 09/26/2016 04:07 PM, William A Rowe Jr wrote:
What has happened is that between 2.0 -> 2.2 -> 2.4 has been an ongoing
process of reducing 'must configure' choices in the server. The stated goal
some 10-12 years ago was that every module/configuration option has some
sensible default, to an end goal of being able to start httpd with an empty
config file. That might be overly optimistic, but if you look at the modern
httpd.conf file, it is significantly shorter than what used to ship with
1.3,
and the other oddball and illustrative items all moved to conf/extra/.
It would be nice as we look beyond 2.4 to not only simplify this further as
we see those opportunities, but look at chances to avoid the 'multiple
slider' scenario where two or three directives are required to achieve just
a single benefit. Good example of this are the interrelated mpm tuning
parameters; edit one and you've likely committed yourself to editing three
or four values for a desired end result. Timeouts spread between core and
proxy pose a similar challenge.
There are limits to our solving this puzzle; we have an infinitely
extensible
modular architecture and with third party modules and in-process extension
by lua or perl, configuration will always pose some complexity IMO. But
patches to simplify things in trunk/ are always welcome.
Sure. I think I agree with all of those points:
- minimize the boilerplate needed in a minimal configuration
- reduce interdependencies between directives
- recognize that raw power will require some minimum level of complexity
What I'm asking about here, though, is something more basic: given the
set of things that most entry-level users want to do (run a PHP
application, or a static file server, or whatever), how easy is it for a
typical user to *actually* do those things, starting from a default
configuration? That's a much more pressing issue for me than manual
performance tuning or the use of programmatic modules, which generally
involve a more advanced user.
(To be clear: I think making it easier for advanced users to do advanced
things has significant value. It's just not my focus here.)
--Jacob
