Re: Task-help & Wizards

[Donovan Rebbechi <elflord@pegasus.rutgers.edu>]

> On 27-May-98 Donovan Rebbechi wrote:
> > Software \\should almost always be able to configure itself. Changes to
> > environment can be made through files in /etc/profile.d/ , adding
> > something to cron also just involves adding a file in the right place,
> > adding to initialisation : just add files under /etc/rc.d. Also, most
> > packaging methods allow post install scripts. 
> 
> 
> But most software doesn't/can't.  

I don't have much trouble packaging software that does. It is the
packaging (eg the rpm post install scripts , etc) that do this. This kind
of configuration is the distributor's responsibility, not the software
author's. With good packaging, most software _can_ do this. For example,
all the GUI software at ftp.dunadan.com/pub/independence configures itself
and adds itself to RH5's menu systems (and soon, it will add itself to the
KDE menus as well ... ) 

The problem is not that most software _can't , it's that it doesn't. Why ?
It's badly packaged, or not packaged with the SEU in mind.

> And the one's that do, don't necessarily do
> it right for a given distribution.  

So you guys are going to have to target a distribution (preferably
one that actually exists) sooner or later if
you want to get anything done. You can't go anywhere without some basic
assumptions about the configuration of the target system.  

> Wizards is still a good idea until Linux
> comes out with one guy/group/comany that creates the one GUI interface that
> everybody will write software for.

It's a bad idea. Why ? For a start, RPM can't interactively place files. 
So your packages aren't going to be in RPM format. 
 Can Debian's package tool do it ? if it can't , I guess you're stuck with
unmanaged packages ( unless you care to write a new package manager... ) 

You need to come up with something that is going to work with the existing
packaging mechanisms. RPM and wizards are _highly incompatible ... 

	-- DOnovan
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