will there be a tui user config

[Michael K. Johnson]

On Wed, Oct 29, 2003 at 08:26:13PM -0400, Ben Steeves wrote:
> On Wed, 2003-10-29 at 17:43, Michael K. Johnson wrote:
> > On Wed, Oct 29, 2003 at 04:26:27PM -0400, Ben Steeves wrote:
> > > Mind you, SMIT's implementation wasn't perfect.  Since the commands were
> > > built programmatically (SMIT is essentially a front end that runs the
> > > appropriate commands (or scripts)), they were sometimes less than
> > > optimal or needlessly pedantic (putting in parameters for flags that
> > > would be assumed as defaults, that sort of thing).  Still, it was very
> > > reassuring (for a seasoned sysadmin because you knew exactly what was
> > > going on, and for a newbie because you could learn).
> > 
> > I think that the fact that SMIT had to do this was an indication that
> > the whole configuration process was wrongheaded from the start in AIX.
> 
> I don't disagree with you :-)  Nonetheless, the ability to "pull back
> the curtain" is one of the things that sets Linux apart from Those Other
> Operating Systems.

Yeah, and the reason there was a curtain to begin with on AIX was
their keeping all the configuration in a binary database and
regenerating the config files blindly every time you sneezed.

With Linux, we can generally just not have that curtain to
begin with, and with textual configuration files, often
commented, often documented, and sometimes both, you do
not have the formidable barrier to management that I
recall on AIX...

> I would never advocate mimicing anything about how
> SMIT or AIX configuration in general work, but for configuration, as any
> true Linux geek will tell you, nothing beats the command line.  GUI
> tools are really convenient, but I know I always feel better when doing
> my thing I'm backstage :-)

Yeah, but a lot of what config tools do is modify config files
rather than run SMIT-like
touch-my-database-and-blindly-regenerate-my-config-files commands
so it's apples and oranges.

> > (Yes, I was an AIX admin at one time, I'm
> > not just spouting off.)
> 
> I feel your pain :-)  Thankfully Linux saved us both :)

Heh.  Well, I learned Linux before AIX (back in the days
when we didn't have init, getty, or login...) but worked
with all sorts of commercial Unix to pay the bills before
Linux had significant commercial success.

michaelkjohnson

 "He that composes himself is wiser than he that composes a book."
 Linux Application Development                     -- Ben Franklin
 http://people.redhat.com/johnsonm/lad/