Hello Wes.

14 Jun 03 14:58, you wrote to me:

 MG>> user as well. The sorts of programs that work well while at the same
 MG>> time having an intuitive interface for the user show the true mark of a
 MG>> well written program.

 WG> I think we're in violent agreement here. I certainly would encourage any
 WG> one who wants to write a good GUI or TUI for max/squish configuration to
 WG> step forward. Or even "new sysop setup wizards", or
something similar.
 WG> Making configuration software emit nice, readable configuration files is
 WG> really not significantly more difficult than any other kind of output.

 WG> In fact, I'll step up to the plate here -- once max/squish are stable
 WG> under UNIX, I'd be willing to write scanners/parsers for the
 WG> Maximus/Squish configuration files based on the Maximus sources (for
 WG> optimal compatibility) and code to write the files back out again.
 WG> Somebody else will have to the UI itself, however -- that's not realyl
 WG> something I'm in to, and frankly I'm not very good at it, either.

If I can find some time (which I am usually in short supply of), I'd be
willing to fire up my ANSI editor and create some color, high-ascii based
screens to add to the effort. I may not be able to code them into the UI,
but at least this I can do, and it may give some people a better idea of
what I envision for future possibilities.

 WG> FWIW, I'd probably lean toward a Tcl/Tk-based configuration engine --
 WG> lightweight, and very portable (At least among unices, Win32, and OS/2 --
 WG> not sure about DOS). Another options would be to use dialog; it's a
 WG> limited toolset, but it's very easy to use to create TUIs and also has an
 WG> X-Windows equivalent (it normally runs under curses).

I need to spend some time and learn more about some of the Linux scripting
languages. Currently, my Linux setup is on my mail hub, and I can only have
it down for limited periods of time, until I get my hub services working
under Linux. I'm thinking maybe it'd be a good idea to add a fourth machine
to my LAN, exclusively running Linux.


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