comps xml advice

[Ken Teh]

I would like to install a minimal SL system plus/minus certain packages. 
Since it's minimal, I figure the easiest way is to install core (maybe base) 
and manually add and subtract packages in the ks file.  Another possibility 
is to modify the comps.xml file to turn type='default' to type='optional' 
for those packages I don't want.  Of course, that means I have to host the 
installation tree on a server inside of fetching them via http from a 
mirror.  Both methods are about equivalent. What I don't want to do is sit 
in front the machine and manually check and uncheck packages.

The above approaches work only because it's a minimal install.  Anything 
more would get pretty tedious.  Are there cleverer ways of doing this?