Matt Schalit wrote:
Ray Olszewski wrote:At 10:13 AM 2/4/03 -0600, Charles Steinkuehler wrote:
But it leaves one thing out ... an important way to simplify the interface for configuration is to restrict the range of choices available.
LEAF tends to be pulled in two directions all the time --
simplicity, so that common uses of it can be configured easily by relatively inexperienced users.
flexibility, so that unusual uses of it are possible for relatively skilled, experienced users.
My interest has always been in the first direction, but the diversity of our interests means that both directions need to be accommodated.
My interests have always been the latter...
David D. tried to go down this road with Oxygen, andWhen I designed my setup program, I thought about what would Adam Average want to do? He wants to boot the disk, and be led through all he needs. Someone said he needed a router - so he picks that. Each dialog was designed to lead the uninformed individual along. If there was no getting around the gear talk ("what's your IP?") it specifically suggested asking for technical help.
once he started, his development here drifted off.
So I can't tell you much about it, because it didn't
work very well, but here's what he did.
He made a syslinux boot option to boot into setup
mode where you were presented with several options
on the overall use of your LEAF box: router, print-server,
DMZ, some other choices along those lines. I probably
got them wrong, but you get the idea. I thought it
was bad to begin with.
What I think is a good idea, however, is a gui-based, drag
and drop interface where you have a big outline of a computer,
and you drag a couple of nic icons onto it. Then you drag a
clock icon onto it (ntpdate) and then you drag a firewall
icon into the middle of it, and maybe some other objects.
Then you are walked through configuring each one.
The alternative suggested poses some problems. Suppose Eva Everybody wants to set up something to go between her PC and her DSL. I can hear the questions Eva might be asking:
"NIC? What's a nic? What's that card thing? Why do I need ntpdate? What is it? Where do I get it? What's an IP?"
My goals for Oxygen evolved into creating a floppy-based, network-based Linux that was as UNIX-compatible as possible - no surprises for UNIX admins.
My goals for the setup program was much different: create a configuration set which was extremely flexible, extensible, and compatible with X. If you specified a DISPLAY variable, you could use and X display and answer the same questions there....
Biggest problem I had was trying to keep the quotes straight for using dialog and Xdialog. Perhaps I should have used a different shell....?
-------------------------------------------------------
This SF.NET email is sponsored by:
SourceForge Enterprise Edition + IBM + LinuxWorld = Something 2 See!
http://www.vasoftware.com
_______________________________________________
leaf-devel mailing list
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/leaf-devel
