On Fri, 7 Sep 2001, Yann Golanski wrote:
> While it is possible to do a simple admin tool that will set options and
> the like, the real power of Exim comes from its versatility. You can
> create your own routers, directors and transports to do the things that
> *you* need to do. It is the creation of your own regular expressions and
> databases lookups, your own blackhole, your own whatever that makes Exim
> powerfull.
>
> There is *NO* web tool that would be usefull for that. None whatsoever.
> It's just not possible to code one that would allow you to do a tenth of
> what ``vi /etc/exim_conf'' allows you to do. If you don't believe me,
> try it. The more you'll start thinking aobut it, the more your web tool
> will just look like a layer on vi.
A comprehensive gui to support the full flexibility of the exim
configuration file is going to require significant maintenance.
Since most users are going to want access to the documentation
for each feature, there will have to be lots of cross references
to the manual.
This makes me wonder whether it is possible in the medium/long
term to work towards a scheme which builds the tool *from* the
documentation. I would expect that this would not be an automatic task,
but that the computer translator would assist a human in the task.
No doubt some of the intelligence could be put into the documentation,
a la web/tangle/weave.
However Phil has a tried and tested markup language which he is
happy with, and the current documentation is too good to risk by
asking Phil to change is methods.
My main complaint about a GUI to generate the config file is that
IME most GUIs fail to support all the features, at which point
you have to change language (OK this might give you more time than
learning the language before you start the service at all, but then again
you there is rarely leisure to switch when you are ready - the feature
that needs the raw config might be needed urgently).
A GUI config editor should be able to parse any config file, even the
features it doesn't understand (which might explain the suggestion of
an SGML config file), and ideally should leave layouts and comments alone.
--
Dr. Andrew C. Aitchison Computer Officer, DPMMS, Cambridge
A.C.Aitchison@??? http://www.dpmms.cam.ac.uk/~werdna
