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List:       kde-devel
Subject:    Re: feature idea - feedback wanted
From:       David Faure <David.Faure () insa-lyon ! fr>
Date:       1999-02-15 8:40:25
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On Sun, Feb 14, 1999 at 02:57:34PM -0800, Alex Zepeda wrote:
> On Sun, 14 Feb 1999, Patrick D. Dowler wrote:
> 
> > It would be a BIG mistake for core KDE components to lose
> > the current (pretty good) cross-platform capabilities. As such,
> > sys admin tools should not be part of the KDE (the desktop).
> 
> Yes and no.  There are some things that require getting rather intimate
> with the kernel or other OS specific bits to accomplish.
> 
> > There could be KDE-aware or KDE-enhanced or KDE-whatever
> > sys admin tools, but I think they should be kept separate (in the
> > source code at least). Those who make binary packages for specific
> > systems can include the appropriate tools as they see fit.
> 
> What I'd like to propose is some sort of kde-favoriteos module for each
> specific OS.  I imagine that most likely there would be three, Linux,
> *BSD, and SunOS 4.x (Obviously more if we have a bunch of say HP-UX
> hackers around here).

I think this is a bad idea. It was already discussed before, you'll end up
with lots of problems (because some programs might run on Linux AND *BSD,
others on SunOS and Linux, ... and so on)

Look at the approach that autoconf has : it doesn't have a hardcoded list
of what exists on what OS, but it tests for it, so if a new system uses
something that already existed before, you'll be able to use the tool for
it without having to update such a list.

I think it's better to add admin tools to kdeadmin, with checks in
configure to know whether each tool must be compiled under a given OS.
This is already the approach used by lots of programs among the kde CVS -
such as kppp, ksirc, or in kdeadmin : kdat.

> Alas, I think coolo would not be thrilled to have zeus used as a dumping
> ground like this however...
> 
> > There are a few things which are system tools but are also more
> > or less platform independent (kdm, for example). That could be a
> > special case. 
And there are tools like kcmbind, which I think can run on any system
having named, right ? Not an OS specific thing, but still a sysadmin tool.
Same for ksamba.

There will be lots of sysadmin GUIs for such quasi-OS-independent programs, 
and only some for OS specific things (network config, ipfwadm, hum what
else ?)

-- 
 ____________________________________________________________________
|                                                                    |
|  David FAURE                                                       |
|  E-mail : David.Faure@insa-lyon.fr, faure@kde.org                  |
|  http://www.insa-lyon.fr/People/AEDI/dfaure/index.html             |
|____________________________________________________________________|

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