Re: I think It was Peter Luka's install abstraction proposal...

[Kai Wetzel <k.wetzel@welfen-netz.com>]

John Munoz wrote:
[...]
> There are many positive features in the W95 registry.

> A registry inplemented with flat files will be *VERY* bad anytime
> more than one process needs to access it, and don't try to tell me that
> the FS handles locking or relational integrity well.  The problem with a
> DB is that your OS becomes dependent on the operation of the DB( I think
> this is obvious and the main reason against it), so the question is "can
> we implement a bombproof DB that will be one of the mandatory OS
> components like the scheduler or the root shell?" A second option might
> be to design it so that in single user mode there will be no concurrency
> issues, have the application handle relational integrety, and allow
> certain processes text mode access, untill we switch info "full db
> working, multi-user mode".  Might be tricky...

When I thought abou this isuue the last time, I came to
the preliminary conclusion that it's the best idea to store
the master preference settings in editable text files (*.rc)
and have a "db" process which builds up a cached copy from
this in memory.  Applications would handle read/write access
through this "db" process.  I don't know whether it's a good
idea or not, though ;)

> I was looking at window managers.  AfterStep, Enlightenment, and K all
> caught my eye.

While I still use FVWM2 ;) I think WindowMaker is the nicest
(if we consider e somewhat 'special') and the one with the
fastest development cycle currently.  WindowMaker isn't stable
enouhg for a "default" WM but I have the impression that it'll
be there when SEUL ships.

> Olvwm was not the coolest, but not bad looking.

This waas my first impression of X and it was a very
nice impression.  I think some anti-aliasing of the
round menu and button edges as well as a nice raytraced
pin would have been a significant improvement, though.

[...]
> What we really need to do is list our requirements.

E.g. looking at one of them and ask "What's lacking ?"

I think it would be cool to provide a default WM (candidates
would IMO be: WindowMaker, AfterStep, and FVWM95) as well
as offer quite a lot of auto-configured alternatives as we
proceed.  I think switching WMs on the fly is one of the
cool features of X which people who like to try new stuff
will like.  think of the success of the '95 themes :)

As another idea, it would be nice to have a meta-window-
mamager.  This would be an app which pops up a little
selection dialog when you hold down "shift" when X comes up.
Otherwise, the default WM would be started (the default could
be configurable).  So if you don't care about the WM, it doesn't annoy
you :-)

[...]
kai