Re: SEUL: SEUL duplicating efforts?

[Kevin Forge <forgeltd@pop.netaddress.usa.net>]

Donovan Rebbechi wrote:
> 
> On Fri, 13 Feb 1998, David Freeman wrote:
> 
> > I just downloaded and installed KDE beta 3.  Very, very nice.  Gnome is
> > also progressing very rapidly.  SEUL does not need to work on desktop
> > environments, in my opinion.
> 
> strongly agree.
> 
> > Any  admin/setup tools we write should be modules for existing systems,
> > whether they be KDE/GNOME/Linuxconf.
> 
> KDE is nice, but (as every-one knows) not quite free (free, but not
> "freed")
>
From what I know of the License it's free enough for SEUL.  The
restrictions
only come in when you develop commercial software.  SEUL is not
commercial.
and our target audience won't be doing much software development.  So
KDE
will do.  Especially since it's now at the point where it just needs 
polishing.  GNOME on the other hand is just barely started.  If later on 
GNOME catches up we can simply switch.  
Or we could ship both from the start. 
 
>
> > What we really need to work on is an _easy_, automated X setup.
> 
> X-Configuration is
> by a mile the hardest part of setting up linux. There's numerous traps:
> serial mice don't get setup properly on RH 5, problems with
> sub-optimal video performance (required me to write a modeline) , problems
> with applications opening in windows bigger than the screen (even on
> 800x600 display) ...
> 
> Also, the Xauthority thing is a big annoyance to any newbie who's tried to
> run a Tcl/Tk mail client under X (exmh gives lots of nasty error
> messages).
> 
> Some heavy-duty improvements to the startx script wouldn't go
> astray. What would be really nice is a program that generates an
> 'xstartup' script or something of the sort. Just some program that invites
> you to do some options (Xauthority, default color depth , config file etc)
> and spits out a script.
> 
> Other hardware that is problematic includes (non) automated modem
> configuration, and sound card setup  (even sndconfig from RH5 doesn't
> detect the hardware, you need to tell it the IRQ/DMA ... )
> 
> > Also automate common user actions, using gnurus (wizards).  Write
> > newbie-oriented tutorials and help files.
> 
> I would be happy to offer assistance on writing docs (though my knowledge
> is a
> little limited).
> 
> I posted to a newsgroup raising this kind of issue a while ago. The
> possibilities include a "help" button and a "HELP" command which fires up
> some kind of browser (perhaps even lynx). It would be nice if the HOWTOs
> were connected to the help system. As a newbie, I found the HOWTOs were my
> life saver, and these plus the LDP docs (such as installation guide) were
> my main source of documentation. A simple command to put a browser on the
> HOWTOs/LDP docs would already be a handy thing (and very easy to do ...
> the script goes something like 'lynx /usr/doc/HTML/index.html' ... )
> 
> > But I don't think that trying to duplicate the effort of other projects
> > is very productive.
> 
> In fact it's precisely what the linux community should step away from ...
> 
> -- Donovan

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