X configuration paradigm, and a proposal

[Avi Alkalay]

Currently is not easy to configure an X server. You have to know the
xorg.conf configuration file format, and know what to put there.

So when you buy a new commodity video card, the manufacturer have to
ask you to edit xorg.conf manually (when he asks...), instead of
shipping together some program that makes the new configuration
automatically. I think this happens because the manufacturer doesn't
want to write an xorg.conf file parser and an editor to insert its
textual piece in the global configuration file.

Same for monitors, multi-monitor desktops, special mice, modules,
screen resolutions (1024x768, 800x600) etc. Everything have to be done
by hand, or entirely regenerated by some distro-specific script, which
also makes you loose manually-edited stuff.

The proposal is to upgrade the way X handles configuration (human
readable xorg.conf) to some hierarchy of configuration atoms
represented by key-value pairs. Something similar to GConf, but not
GConf because this one is not available when X needs to read its
configurations.

A key-value pair paradigm will let a video device installer change
preciselly only the configuration atoms vital to him. The same for a
monitor, mouse, modules, filepaths, etc.
And with time, this will make X way more easier to configure, and user-friendly.

I'd like to hear comments about this.

Regards,
Avi