X configuration paradigm, and a proposal

[Chris Debenham]

On Mon, Nov 08, 2004 at 12:33:27AM -0300, Avi Alkalay wrote in a legally binding way:
> Date: Mon, 8 Nov 2004 00:33:27 -0300
> From: Avi Alkalay <avibrazil at gmail.com>
> To: xorg at freedesktop.org
> Subject: Re: X configuration paradigm, and a proposal
> 
> On Mon, 8 Nov 2004 02:23:35 +0100, Diego Calleja <diegocg at teleline.es> wrote:
> > IMHO making "human readable configuration" is wrong and misguided - users
> > should _never_ touch configuration files.
> 
> Yes, but currently they have to change it by hand. HW manufacturers
> don't know how, or don't have time to spend writing xorg.conf parsers,
> to automatically edit xorg.conf to make user's life easyer.
> 
> Yesterday, a newbie Linux user asked my help to change its screen
> resolution from 640x480 (autodetected) to 1024x768. I had to manually
> edit xorg.conf and change monitor's horizontal sync.
> 

... snipped ...
> 
> A key/value pair paradigm makes X.org configuration atoms preciselly
> accessible by an API, which makes very easy the writing of higher
> level GUI configuration software.
> 
> Thoughts ?
> 
> Regards,
> Avi

Perhaps a dynamic library that knows/understands the xorg/xfree86 config
file and exports a stable, usable interface to query or change the file.
This may be simpler than re-writing the way xorg is configured.

Chris


-- 
Logic Is The Systematic Method Of Coming 
To The Wrong Conclusion With Confidence.