Re: [Fwd: Re: here i come !]

[Bruce Robert Pocock <brpocock 10east com>]

On Wed, 2002-06-26 at 03:46, Thomas Vander Stichele wrote:

> So something like this needs to go in.  Only problem with my version of it 
>> (this => "which network" applet)
> is that it lacks front-end stuff and it's probably not that easy to make a 
> good GUI for it if you want the features I have with it (since what you 
> actually do is create a few of these system files for each configuration).

Ideally, IMHO, the GUI should be separate from the config. files, a la
Apple's "Location" control panel (integrated into "Network" in OS-X)...
i.e. just let them configure the current "Location," editing the hosts +
resolv + ... files in the usual way (through the GUI or by hand, if
necessary...), then when the network switches (manually or
automagically), swap the files to/from an "archive" e.g.
/etc/sysconfig/network/locations or something similar...

Big UI problem I'd forsee is how to identify the MAC addresses that
identify a LAN - not generally a user-visible problem. Perhaps use (DNS
NMB NBP) to identify a machine?

"I am on the [ Home LAN   v ] network if you can see the following
computer(s):

WINDOZE (nmb)
LaserJet 4L (nbp)
FileServer (dns)

[ Add a computer... ]"

"Add a computer:

[ Windows Network Names (NMB)   v ]

Workgroups:	Computers:
HOMELAN		WINDOZE
		SAMBASERV
		IMAC
"

Such a GUI could be a pretty "simple" GTK+Perl/Python script an leave
some of the system-dependant stuff (like how to detect various
interfaces, e.g. eth, 802.11, IRlan, ...) to e.g. your existing toolkit.

(BTW, I've been told it's all SGI's fault: as someone proved to me
yesterday, my old Indy pops up a dialog for Ethernet disconnects and
tries to reconnect (to the same network, though) when it detects link
re-activation... so this isn't a Win2K "innovation" after all.)