On Sun, 2 Apr 2006, Shane Stixrud wrote:
On Sun, 2 Apr 2006, Nicolas Mailhot wrote:
> But why is the gdm conf file such crap ? Is this because gdm writers had
> not lots of advanced configuration file libs at their disposition ?
>
> No
Yes, arbitrary key names and value types do not limit the
programmability or user intractability in _ANY_ way what so ever. Poor
key names and values are SUBJECTIVE and thus can only be judged good or
bad by their tendency to cause understanding or confusion.
>
> It's because they consider :
> 1. the conf file is none of the user business
> 2. as a result little thought went in key naming
> 3. and even worse the keys themselves are not stable from release to
> release
No, it is because naming is subjective in nature and what seems like a
good name to an author might not be statistically a good choice for the
masses. Btw the same holds true for configuration syntax and it is for
this reason that a simple syntax that maintains all of the depth and
functionality is superior to a complex custom syntax.
Cheers,
Shane