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List:       gentoo-desktop
Subject:    Re: [gentoo-desktop]  Re: CD-ROM mounting
From:       Lindsay Haisley <fmouse-gentoo () fmp ! com>
Date:       2009-02-02 17:14:03
Message-ID: 1233594843.12809.21.camel () vishnu ! fmp ! com
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On Mon, 2009-02-02 at 07:43 +0000, Duncan wrote:
> Those *.fdi files can be headaches in other cases as well and 
> unfortunately aren't as easy to find proper documentation on as the 
> traditional configuration they replace.  It may be great for newbies, but 
> it sure gives *ix traditionalists headaches when stuff doesn't work as 
> the *ix gods intended it to! =:^)

You hit that nail spot-on, buddy!  I cut my teeth in Internet-land back
in the 90s on BSDI Unix and learned the standard *ix way of doing
things.  The Unix toolset was a huge tinkertoy set that could be cobbled
and molded to fit just about any need we had.  Some of it was klunky and
awkward, but it just worked!  If you didn't understand how to use a
tool, there was a man page, and so I learned to read and understand the
particular brand of pigin-English geek-ish used in most man pages.  I
was never one of those Unix fanatics who insisted on using emacs for
everything, but I dam sure appreciated the structure and the text-based
configuration of everything.

And I don't think there's a Linux newbie out there, no matter how
brilliant, who wouldn't just scratch his head and throw up his hands
over this kind of problem.  I had to hunt for 6 months for a solution to
the CD mounting problem before I happened to find one.

I certainly understand the advantages of XML, and I wouldn't mind if
standard configurations for essential services were migrated into XML
format, but so far, the lack of concise and centralized documentation, a
la man pages and even info or html files, is appalling!  Narry even a
DTD file for the XML stuff.  Bah!!

> In another case, newer xorg can ignore the xorg.conf setting for keyboard 
> and mouse until the proper "magic" incantation is added.  (Section 
> Serverflags, Option "AllowEmptyInput" 0)  In theory, *.fdi files are 
> supposed to take over, but while the most basic ones work, non-standard 
> keyboard layouts and etc don't without tweaking the appropriate *.fdi 
> files, but the documentation of exactly what and where to tweak them is 
> way harder to come by than say the xorg.conf manpage, and doesn't exist 
> at all in some cases.

That's saying a lot, Duncan.  The documentation on X has historically
been pretty scattered and fragmented, but in the case of .fdi files,
it's damn near nonexistent, which is worse.

If it works, don't fix it!

-- 
Lindsay Haisley       | "The difference between |     PGP public key
FMP Computer Services |  a duck is that one leg |      available at
512-259-1190          |    is  both the same"   | http://pubkeys.fmp.com
http://www.fmp.com    |       - Anonymous       |


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