Shoot me now

Jakob 'sparky' Kaivo jkaivo at elijah.nodomainname.net
Wed May 3 10:24:03 PDT 2000


"Jim Howarth" <jhowarth at multiboard.com> writes:

> > > Such things as a standardized prompt, putting the current path
> > in the path
> > > for regular users (not root).. I'm sure there would be a few
> > other things.
> >
> > Standarized prompt? Why on earth would you want to do that? It has nothing
> > to do with app portability and users can change their prompt anyway
> > so apps can't depend on this. Standardizing htis is of absoultely
> > no value.
> 
> I disagree...  keep in mind that Linux is no longer staying the UberGeek
> operating system of choice.. we are trying to push it into markets where
> your mom and dad will be using it.  We may succeed at this...  we may not.
> Simple little things as standardizing a prompt will make their lives easier.
> I'm not talking about incorporating bashprompt into it.. I'm talking about
> something as simple as the path, user/host and maybe time of day.

That is completely out of the scope of the LSB. LSB is a
*compatibility* standard. We make users' lives easier by assuring
them that application Foo will run on platforms Bar and Baz so long as
all are LSB compliant. A standardized prompt gains us nothing, gains
the user nothing, and pisses off distributors, as the default propmt
is one of the little things that helps differentiate between distributions.

> > > This would be nice...  BS and Del are  presently something that
> > drives me
> > > insane...  this is one of those things from dos that I miss..
> > the ability
> >
> > Having standard BS/Del behavior would fit into the terminal specification
> > I think. However, we should keep in mind termios and not specify apps that
> > won't work via telnet or remote displays.
> 
> 
> Also keep in mind that while Linux is primarily a server platform OS, it
> _may_ not stay that way for long.  Again.. its the little things that make
> transitions from Windows to Linux easier that will make a world of
> difference. I don't want to get into an MS/Linux debate here, but MS has
> developed(Heh.. or stolen) a lot of good UI ideas that have kept them on
> top.  The new user to Linux should be able to expect a smooth transition or
> they will just run away..  not only run but will tell a few people about
> their unhappy experience along the way.  Which as any good marketing exec
> will tell you, is very bad.

Our goal isn't to ease the transition of users from Windows to
Linux. However, standardizing on Backspace and Delete behavior would
be quite useful. Debian policy has a section on this that could be
used as a starting point.

-- 
Jakob 'sparky' Kaivo - jkaivo at ndn.net - http://jakob.kaivo.net/



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