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  • From: Thomas Orgis <thomas-forum AT orgis.org>
  • To: sm-users AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [SM-Users] menuconfig for casts
  • Date: Wed, 14 Dec 2005 21:23:39 +0100

Hi folks!

I installed some SMGL systems recently (as you all certainly know since I
kept the list quite busy about that;-) and the repeated configuration of many
spells with many questions made me think. I have some problems with the
current way; they could partially be caused by my limited knowledge of the
system and its hidden possibilities, but perhaps we want to have some "real"
users in future that may even not want to know as much about the distro
itself as I do (apart from the supposed high knowledge about GNU/Linux in
general, of course).

Long speech, some points - this I don't like about the current configuration
part:


1. You get asked many questions in a linear way. Your answers are final (so
it looks to me). What to do when in a cast with several spells you type
accidentally "y" where you wanted to type "n"? Abort and redo all answers
that have been answered already?

2. There are different kinds of remembered/guessed answers (default value and
automatic answering without possibility to change it). I don't yet
understand how and why... there is this conflict of having as much as
possible worked out / remembered correctly by sorcery but still being able to
change _this_ particular option. Much code (that's a guess;-) determines if a
question is asked at all.

3. The answer to a question may depend on the consequences it has.
Do I want to cast support spell X? OK... but wait! This thingy pulls 10 other
spells in - no, that's not worth it!

4. There are some spells that have lists of options of some common type to
choose from - example is glibc's locale choice. There I see a menu where I
can quickly mark the few locales I want instead of saying y or n to all of
them.
There is the more complex xorg configuration using menu and choice lists.
There are other spells that would benefit from such a behaviour (net-tools is
a good example).



I see a similarity of the cast configuration step to what the kernel's `make
menuconfig` has to to. We have many yes/no items, lists of choices, some
structural hierarchy, interdependencies (with dynamic restructuring of
menus)...

I kindof remember that the kernel config user interface started somehow where
SMGL config is now... the same evolution towards menuconfig (and the choice
to do it either way!) in SMGL would make a great pile of sense, IMHO.


So, here is my propostion: Menuconfig for spell configuration!


Thoughts and rants about that?


Thomas.




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