RE: GNOME registry

["Fox, Kevin M" <kmfox bhi010 bhi-erc com>]

I think you misunderstand. Thats what I tryed to say.

The only reason the actual file exists on the hard drive is so the library
can tell what method of saving the config data. The program dosnt do it. The
library does. PAM does the same thing.

The program should have no idea what form the data is being saved in, just
that it is actually being saved.

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Joshua R. Prismon [SMTP:josh@narf.com]
> Sent:	Thursday, December 31, 1998 9:10 AM
> To:	gnome-list@gnome.org
> Subject:	RE: GNOME registry
> 
> At 08:55 AM 12/31/98 -0800, you wrote:
> >Stupid microsuck outlook.
> >Any way,
> >I didn't say remove flat files.
> >
> >What I am saying is:
> >
> >create a library, lets just say, somthing like libconfig
> >
> >a program uses libconfig to get its config information.
> >
> >program: sendmail
> >sendmail calls libconfig telling libconfig it is sendmail
> >
> >libconfig looks in its default directory, somthing like /etc/libconfig or
> >where ever for 
> >sendmail.cfg
> >
> >it opens it and checks the first line for what module to use. If it is
> LDAP,
> >it checks the next line for what server and what context.
> >
> >if it is the flat file module, it just continues reading the settings
> from
> >that file.
> 
> Why should the program care how the libcfg manages configuration
> information?
> Lets go with the proccess of optimal substructure here. If there is a
> configuration
> library, lets assume that it does it's job better then the regular program
> does. (ie,
> it provides net access to configuration or some cool features), let it
> manage the 
> configuration information. Why should the program even care what format
> the
> data is kept in?
> 
> To illustrate this, 
> 
> Program Gapp calls a configuration service (either thru corba or thru a
> library). 
> It tells the configuration libaray/service that it wants the settings for
> Gapp. 
> The configuration library does it's magic. It can:
> 
> Look at a system wide "defaults" file, and then overlay a user file. 
> Transparently call a LDAP database to figure out the settings. 
> Convert it to Active Directory.
> Read it from a Hash Key DB. 
> Read it from a Text file. 
> See that the user has no configuration, and make a new one for that user. 
> 
> All transparently. To limit it to a format restricts the room to grow. 
> 
> 
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