[OT] Debian mailinglists [was: RE: Debian or Ubuntu?]

[Derek Broughton]

charlie derr wrote:

> Derek Broughton wrote:
>> Florian Diesch wrote:
>> 
>>> I just don't know *any* GUI config tools that supports this things.
>>> And that's just the basics, with text file based configs you easily
>>> get versioning, template or rule based generation, automatic
>>> distribution, ...
>> 
>> Nobody, at any point in this thread, has argued against "text file based
>> configs".  I've argued against editing them with a text editor
> 
> To be a bit more pedantic, I'd say that I have the impression you're
> arguing for (someday) not allowing others to be able to edit
> config files with a text editor.   Until there are truly bulletproof
> well-tested solutions in existence (and not just vaporware in
> our dreams), I think most of us would disagree with that goal. 

Hell, _I_ disagree with that!  Of course, the config tool has to be there
first.

> I also think that in some respects, calling this a "GUI" issue is somewhat
> misleading.  

I agree.  I've said it was a bad choice of wording in my first post, though
I do think the tools would have to be graphical to meet most users
requirements.

> Having this checking built into the interface (so that it's impossible to
> even craft a config file with an invalid entry) doesn't really seem more
> valuable to me than a utility which
> could be run against a config file and alert on invalid entries, syntax
> errors, etc...   

It's more valuable in that people routinely _don't_ use such tools - as
witnessed by the fact that at least two people on this thread appear to
have been maintaining Apache servers without knowing they could do that.

>> - and you
>> don't get _any_ of those benefits using vi.
> 
> Well maybe that's true, but with emacs, I get all kinds of benefits :-]

But not out of the box - you still have to write the automation.
-- 
derek