Matt Estela:
> I think this is over-complicating things. Why not just find the file the
> way vim handles it's .vimrc: [ first one of .fvwmrc ~/.fvwmrc system.fvwmrc ]
That's essentially what happens now, except for the naming of files (and
I don't think . is searched).
The problem to be solved is this: many a sysadmin wants to set up a nice,
comfortable default environment for every user. Something, for example,
that has a menu with all/most X programs that are installed on the system.
So he writes a system.fvwmrc that does this. So far, so good.
However, many users will want to customize their environment, at least a
bit. For example, they might want to change colors, the background, or
add a couple of entries to the menu. To do this, they copy system.fvwmrc
to ~/.fvwm2rc, edit it, and they're happy.
Until the sysadmin changes system.fvwmrc to add a new program to the menu.
Instead of copying, the user might just put the line "Read /foo/system.fvwmrc"
as the first line in his .fvwm2rc. This breaks when (not if) the sysadmin
moves the file to another place. Also, it will cause helpdesk load when
people accidentally remove the line.
One way to handle this is have fvwm always read both system.fvwmrc and
.fvwm2rc. This has the drawback that the user might not want any traces of
the default environment, so there must be some override.
My own solution is to have system.fvwmrc read in .fvwm2/post.hook (the name
needs some work, but it doesn't matter). This solves all problems, I think.
If a user wants a small customization, they can just write a one-line
.fvwm2/post.hook. If they want to completely replace the environment,
they can create a .fvwm2rc (in which case system.fvwmrc is not read at all).
Actually, my solution introduces another problem: since I have many `hook'
files, the user may be more confused about what the file should be called.
Documentation can only go so far.
If someone wants to have a look,
<
http://www.iki.fi/liw/misc/fvwm2config-0.1.tar.gz>.
(Note: I use the name system.fvwmrc, although the actual name is
$(FvwmDir)/.fvwm2rc; I think system.fvwmrc is a better name, and I hope
it will be changed back in the future. But I'm not lobbying it until I
write the code myself.)
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Received on Thu May 30 1996 - 14:40:07 BST