Re: [tlug] linux@example.com How many widely can we do that?

[Curt Sampson <cjs@example.com>]

On 2009-10-26 16:00 +0900 (Mon), Stephen J. Turnbull wrote:

> It's the backside that emits the stink, as usual: the APIs and UIs for
> interacting with the tools, especially configuration.

Well, it is possible to interact somewhat with the configuration just
as text files, which is a big step above the Windows registry. It's not
good enough that it's still not a miserable, half-assed job keeping my
configuration in revision control, however.

> Usually documented by an automatic tool that turns .h files
> into prose.  (I kid you not.)

Well, it's a step above separate documentation that never gets updated.
Documentation should come from code whenever possible.

> (You certainly can find really horrible config files. sendmail.cf is a
> well-known example....)

Mitigating that is that sendmail.cf is really a special-purpose
programming language more than a "configuration file," (in how many
configuration file langauges can you write a program to solve towers
of hanoi?) and it's also been primarially an object language (i.e.,
something to which your configuration files are compiled) since at least
the mid-'90s.

cjs
-- 
Curt Sampson       <cjs@example.com>        +81 90 7737 2974
           Functional programming in all senses of the word:
                   http://www.starling-software.com