W.Kenworthy wrote: >>From a users point of view - dont do it. > Firstly, can I ask you not to top-post? It makes it harder to follow the flow of conversations. > Stay simple and standard (i.e., equal to upstream as per the gentoo > philosophy). > It's been years since I worked with a dial-up Linux box, but iirc RH5 had the capability to hook scripts into the ppp sequence (it's how I got my connection going ;)
> Its easier for users to understand (and find documentation for) and less > likely to break. > Sure, but here we're talking about enabling users, in the characteristically simple and clean Gentoo fashion, to hook in functionality they need. Documentation has always been one of Gentoo's strong points (as you'll have noticed one of the doc team already asked that any changes be reflected in web docs.) Quite apart from which, the config files are always well-commented, since they are designed to be edited by humans. Some of them are mini-tutorials (eg make.conf.example.) > Expert users will make changes anyway and they have the knowledge to do > so - its almost impossible to second guess what everyone is going to do > - the experts will do their own thing anyway as no matter what you do, > it wont be suitable for everyone. If you make the configuration more > complex so its "experts only" to understand it, its not going to do > anyone a favour. > Sure, but this isn't complex, it's just one level of metadata. As such it enables a whole lot while still being simple to understand. As for experts-only, ime with dial-up, any user who sets such a connection up has to edit a file or two. I didn't get anywhere with dial-up guis in RH6, so I admit my knowledge is out-dated, but the stuff I did by hand was simple in comparison to other Gentoo stuff. There's no point pretending you can set up and administer a Gentoo box without being willing to look at text files; a generic user may be able to get on fine with just a GUI, but someone's got to maintain the box (even if remotely.) To my mind the changes proposed would make it simpler to script around PPP which would make the sysadmin/developer's job a lot easier, and thus the end-user experience much smoother. > This proliferation of non-standard configuration files > (i.e., /etc/conf.d) that gentoo does, and the changes that keep > happening to them is one of the hardest things for a user to keep up > with - for an example of the problems this causes, see the networking > scripts! (constant changes, broken networking etc - yes they are now > better at this point in time, but I wonder when the next change will > occur that will unexpectedly kill my remote systems ...) > I've never had to mess with any networking voodoo (we're not allowed WIFI where I work in any case) so I can't really comment. I would say that if you see changes of the type you mention, and you have some constructive input (such as how to upgrade, or even just warning others) forum posts would be welcomed. Patches to docs and scripts on bugzilla are even more welcome. -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list
