On Wed, Feb 05, 2003 at 05:21:05PM -0800, Matt Schalit wrote: > Hi David, nice to hear from you on this list.
Hi! Good to be back... > I'd like to ask off the top, because I don't know > how you feel, but if a central-config-db is designed, > and a new package format is developed that interaces > with the db, would you use it in Oxygen? Possibly. I'd have to become informed. > If you considered making changes along the lines > of a central-db to eliminate redundancies and simplify > config/maintanence, what would you focus on in terms > of better formats? Simplicity. Compatability. Ability to run on a LEAF system. Compatability and usability with systems on CDROM. > And as far as the ntpdate thing, the Icon would be a clock, > and the tooltip text might be: > > __________________________________________________________________ > | | > | "Automatic time synchronization -- [software] | > | If your LEAF is connected to the Internet, you | > | can drag this icon onto the computer image below | > | so that your LEAF automatically keeps it's clock | > | synchronized with the correct time. | > | | > | Details | > | * This clock icon represents the ntpdate package, | > | who's URL is here: http://www.ntpdate.stuff/ | > | who's docs are here: http://leaf.sf.net/pub/doc/blah | > | | > | Requirements | > | * To use this piece of software, you need to be | > | able to provide it with the IP address of the | > | nearest public master clock. The closer that | > | clock is to you, the better. Find the nearest | > | public clock's address here, at | > | http://www.timeservers.here/ | > | or ask you ISP if they provide a time server. | > | Many do. | > | | > | More Help | > | * Send email to the leaf-user list here: | > | mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] | > |__________________________________________________________________| This is good, but when I was designing "setup.sh" I kept several user questions in mind when I wrote the dialogs, etc: 1. "Why do I want this?" 2. "What does it do for me?" and also tried to avoid technical explanations and technical terms at all costs. For your tooltip, I might write it thus: "Keeping accurate time. Move this icon over your system icon in order to have your LEAF system keep accurate time. This program requires a constant Internet connection to be useful." One doesn't need to know the URL, nor the "more help", nor that you need to know the IP of a "public master clock" (as this can be preinstalled and part of the installation.). > Did the writing of your setup program bog down > somewhat due to how hard it is to write a wizard > that will make a functional firewall given all > the myriad of network setups and protocols Eva > might have (pppoe, dhcp, etc)? Somewhat. The worst part was trying to get the quoting right. It also was hard to create a system that could be "backed out"; I did that by creating a "subtree" of directories with all of the new data, which was not added until the okay was given. > Your idea of just setting the DISPLAY variable > and to get the same thing in X is *impressive*. Basically, the DISPLAY var only tells what X display to use; the setup program checked for the existance of Xdialog and prompted the user if they wanted to use an Xdisplay - and asked for the IP to use. > It seems like the goal of lrcfg and acfg is to get > you to vi the correct file. I always thought that > was a shame. acfg was designed mostly to be a drop in for lrcfg. Also, with my goals as stated, any UNIX person, admin or whatever, will be using vi to edit a text file. Setup programs tend to be complicated, large, graphical, and non-extensible - and unaware of programs that they weren't designed for. One thing my "setup" program had was a directory structure so that each program package could have its own setup script - load the package, and then setup finds it and knows how to configure it. ------------------------------------------------------- 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
