From debian-devel Tue Aug 05 18:21:23 2003 From: Josef Spillner Date: Tue, 05 Aug 2003 18:21:23 +0000 To: debian-devel Subject: Re: How to install X-Chat in five hours (or more) X-MARC-Message: https://marc.info/?l=debian-devel&m=106010904729570 On Tuesday 05 August 2003 18:55, Ian Hickson wrote: > Without meaning offense, that is a very selfish attitude. The number of > future debian users is *significantly* larger than the number of existing > users, unless something drastic happens to either humanity or debian > itself. Why should everyone who will use debian in future be forced to > learn archaic commands, paths, and deal with other historical holdbacks, > instead of the few who already use it being taught easier conventions? More comfort requires more system resources (except for a few really clever hacks). Beginners are most likely willing to accept that a few CPU cycles are used for making their computing time easier - you'll see that they like icons (animated ones even), tooltips, first-time wizards and so on. Now, the unix file system layout was never designed to be end-user friendly in the beginning (the short ASCII-style file and directory names take care of that), yet development didn't stop. What Linux and other OSes lack in the kernel space, has started to exist in the user space. With KDE, you've got a "Home" folder already and a "Trash" folder. With GNOME, you've got a "Preferences" container. You can easily write an implementation which fits your needs, e.g. a KIO slave for directory name translation, or a Hurd translator for system-level bindings. Of course, in order to not be flamed from time to time, you should come up with a nice concept first. You don't have to write the code yourself, but you do have to invent the user-friendly layer and make it public. Josef -- Play for fun, win for freedom. Hurd^H^H^H^HLinux-Info-Tag Dresden 2003: http://www.linux-dresden.de -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-devel-request@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmaster@lists.debian.org