Re: CML2 design philosophy heads-up

Daniel Phillips
2001-05-18T17:07:38Z

On Friday 18 May 2001 17:11, Arjan van de Ven wrote:
> > (a) Back off the capability approach. That is, accept that
> > people doing configuration are going to explicitly and
> > exhaustively specify low-level hardware.
>
> <snip>
>
> > I don't want to do (a); it conflicts with my design objective of
> > simplifying configuration enough that Aunt Tillie can do it. I
> > won't do that unless I see a strong consensus that it's the only
> > Right Thing.
>
> Aunt Tillie doesn't even know what a kernel is, nor does she want to.

A little presumptuous, no? I do in fact know an 'Aunt Tillie' type who
configures her own kernel. When she gets stuck she calls for help from
her son, who is a computer geek.

> I think it's fair to assume that people who configure and compile their own
> kernel (as opposed to using the distribution supplied ones) know what they
> are doing.

Not a fair assumption, if only because everybody does it for the first
time.

> Or at least make something like a "Expert level" question as first question, so
> that people who DO know what they are doing can select the options they want.

Yes. The hackneyed platitude that 'easy' and 'powerful' are mutually
exclusive is a statistical observation, not a law of the universe.

--
Daniel