Re: SEUL: Common SEUL/e-linux tools needed

[William T Wilson <fluffy@dunadan.com>]

On Fri, 9 Jan 1998, Loren S Osborn wrote:

> The config file that I speak of would be the product of one of us, or
> (eventually) the developer, reading through all the docs and extracting all
> the compile-time, startup-time, and run-time options for the program in
> question, and translating them into a form that can be easily automated in
> our GUI config tool... this format would have to be QUITE FLEXIBLE.  While

I SEE.  Now THIS, THIS is a good idea.  yay.  This gives us a way to make
GUI tools out of non-GUI tools.  I can see a generic Tcl/Tk script
interpreting this file and allowing what amounts to a "properties" tab or
"preferences" window like Windows/Mac has, only, it wouldn't be part of
the program - it would be part of the environment!  What a fantastic idea.
The Tcl script could then generate an appropriate config file if necessary
before running the program.  Hooray.

Developing the rule language for the TCL script will be the hard part.
Associating buttons and sliders with switches and values is easy, but
generating the config file based on it - that's hard.  Imagine trying to
configure, say, Sendmail in this way.  :)

Can we use M4 or do we have to do this all ourselves?

Fortunately, there are very few things that can't be expressed as a
checkbox, radio button, drop-box, or slider.  :)

> even bigger.  While we *ARE* requireing things that aren't in standard
> packages, some things that can automatically be determined can easily be
> packaged with it...

Well, packages we don't distribute just won't have this config file, and
won't have our spiffy graphic interface.  What a bummer.  It will
encourage users to run our software (better, because it's tested) and will
encourage us to produce more front-end rulesets.