Date: Sun, 28 Sep 1997 23:35:31 -0600 (MDT) From: Wes Peters <softweyr@xmission.com> To: Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com> Cc: chat@freebsd.org, mike@smith.net.au, sef@kithrup.com Subject: Re: Microsoft brainrot (was: r-cmds and DNS and /etc/host.conf) Message-ID: <199709290535.XAA22463@obie.softweyr.ml.org> In-Reply-To: <19970928160530.00335@lemis.com> References: <199709272127.OAA11524@usr08.primenet.com> <19970928101941.03210.kithrup.freebsd.chat@lemis.com> <199709280254.TAA20632@kithrup.com> <19970928160530.00335@lemis.com>
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Greg Lehey writes:
> DNS is a different matter. I don't see how you can change the fact
> that there's a lot of repetitive information in there. If you have
> 100 systems, and you have to change the IP address, your choices are:
But isn't repetitive information something computers are supposed to be
*good* at? So, design a system that lets the computer handle the
redundancy and the user simply handle the unique parts. For instance:
> 1. With a GUI, I contend that you have to go in and change each one
> individually. Sure, it's possible to write a GUI which will
> handle this example, but each such example has to be programmed
> individually.
>
> 2. With the current config file mechanism, you just go in with an
> editor and do a block change.
If you mean existing GUIs, this is certainly true. As I suggested
earlier, a well-crafted GUI would eliminate most, or perhaps all, of
this. For instance, if you change your network address, with the
existing system you have to do a search and replace. With the mickey
soft GUI, you have to click on every host and change it's IP address
manually. With the idealized, designed-by-Wes GUI tool, you simply
change the network address for the domain and all of the hosts in that
domain 'inherit' the new information. If any of them conflict,
i.e. you're changing from a class b to class c network and some host
addresses are > 255, the tool warns you and displays the now-flawed
hosts in a manner that signifies they are no longer working. (Grey them
out, put a red circle-slash over them, whatever.)
Don't forget that as you identify problems, it is possible to work out
visually intuitive solutions to them. Microsoft obviously cannot be
bothered to do this, but we can.
Please, keep the comments and problems coming. This could develop into
a killer FreeBSD sales point. We often tout the capabilities of FreeBSD
as an internet server, but have made *no* strides making it *the*
internet server to have, because it is the easiest to setup and
maintain. I strongly believe a few really well thought out tools to
configure and monitor a FreeBSD-based server will go a long ways towards
getting magazine editors, etc. to tell everyone "FreeBSD is the one to
get."
And Mike, if we can hook up with SEF's compatriot, I'd like to take a
stab at this. He is interested in turning out such a tool using Tk, so
your Tcl experience may pay off here. I've learned a little about Tcl,
and want to learn more about Tk, and would very much like to do design
work on this tool.
--
"Where am I, and what am I doing in this handbasket?"
Wes Peters Softweyr LLC
http://www.xmission.com/~softweyr softweyr@xmission.com
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