Re: SEUL: seul-db (bad idea... at least as stated)

[Loren S Osborn <lso8219@cs.rit.edu>]

seul-db:

I think seul-db as it stands is somewhat of a bad idea.  (I know we haven't
decided to adopt figurine, but bare with me for a moment.)  I remember 
reading in the desired goals of the figurine project, that config
options would be stored in their standard Unix places.  Also it specifically
states that these options should NOT be stored in an external database.  
I STRONGLY AGREE with this philosophy for the following 2 reasons:

	1)  This makes the Figurine (or SEUL) tools portable to not only
to other Unicies, but to Linux boxes not originally configured for SEUL.
(Also sticks to tried-and-true programs for system operations )

	2)  This allows a SEUL-admin who has been messing with the config
files to see the direct result of his/her actions on the SEUL "control
panel".  This would:
		a)  aide in learning how a Unix box functions. and...
		b)  help the new admin fix any mis-configurations quickly


I'm not saying that SEUL shouldn't have preferance options stored in a database
somewhere.  I'm saying that options that are actually used in a shell-script
or standard config file somewhere else on the system should be re-read each
time vs. replacing the config files with stuff from the database.

Also (side-note) since we are dealing with a multi-tasking system, we should
specify what will happen if the config options are changed by the user while
our "control panel" is running (i.e. the "control panel" detects the changed
files -- while it's running-- and updates it's display accordingly)

comments?

Loren
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