[Tfug] GConf and it's ilk

[John Gruenenfelder]

On Mon, May 26, 2008 at 03:17:39PM -0700, Bexley Hall wrote:
>
>My main reason for doing this is to make it easier
>for a user to configure an appication (or the
>system itself).  Each configurable entity can
>just export a form that presents all of the
>configurable options and let the user make
>adjustments at will.  (of course, the form isn't
>static as it must enforce application-specific
>semantics, etc. -- but, all of that becomes
>visible to the user in a very obvious manner!)

To the best of my knowledge, there is no system as robust as the one you
specify, especially in the area of "permissions".  Of course, I'm not really
sure how you would handle that except by having apps agree to be truthful and
not stomp each others settings.

>The biggest down-side, IMO, to this is the
>performance issue (space & time).  But, I think
>I can afford both (I consider this a far better
>use of resources than "pretty wallpaper" and
>"animated icons"  :> ).

I think this is a non-issue.  If done poorly (see Windows' registry), then
even a binary format can kill performance.  But *NIX has done well for decades
using plain text configuration files for almost 99% of everything.  The time
it takes to process and update is inconsequential, even more so these days
with supercomputer cellphones.

The bigger time issue is the time it takes to write such a system correctly.
With any text format that users can potentially edit you'll need to be more
robust about error checking.  Checking doesn't take time, but writing the code
to do the checking right will.

>Any other issues that have come up with people
>using things like GConf?  Or, is it too "impure"
>to fit my goals??

gconf certainly meets some of your goals, but probably not enough.  And I
imagine it would be more trouble than it's worth to modify gconf to suit your
needs... but that's just a guess.


-- 
--John Gruenenfelder    Research Assistant, UMass Amherst student
                        Systems Manager, MKS Imaging Technology, LLC.
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