Re: Re: Possible WM Documentation Project

Peter Dembinski wrote:

>On Wed, Mar 09, 2005 at 10:50:35AM -0800, Alex Perez wrote:
>
>[...]
>
>  
>
>>>I should have read the previous post more carefully.  All my divagations
>>>were about switching from proplist format to XML-based format 
>>>of configuration files.  
>>>      
>>>
>>Perhaps /I/ am the one who misunderstood the previous post, because I 
>>thought it was about *documentation*. Was I incorrect?
>>    
>>
>
>heh :)
>
>That's my opinion:
>.  DocBook is good for technical documentation,
>.  PropLists are good for storing configuration info.
>
>[...]
>  
>
No. I *was* thinking of config files.  Docbook is xml-based but so is 
svg  (eg.)

What I had in mind - perhaps mistakenly - was that configuration files 
in the oss world were gradually being converted to some standard 
xml-based dialect(s).

Here's what happened to me when I installed Debian Sarge with the wmaker 
cherry on top: started wprefs to add a couple of favorites to my menus 
and wprefs said - oh no you don't..! your menu files (read conf file) 
are in the *wrong* format.. So I poke around a bit and eventually I find 
that wmakerconf is not so fussy and lets you convert you menu files to 
the "other" format.. But then guess what.. you lose the Debian menu 
(yes.. the one that's regularly updated each time you use the Debian 
packaging system to add or remove apps from the system..!). 

So apparently just for wmaker there's not one but at least two different 
proprietory formats just for the menus.. 

I'm not saying xml is necessarily the solution to the wild variety of 
formats of conf files in the linux (*nix?) world.. but since gnome/gtk 
appear to have converted to this new standard - at least from what I see 
when I grep the /etc directory on this new system - I thought I'd ask..

As to Docbook .. we're all agreed.. No questions asked :-)

[...]

oh and what's Proplists/libproplist? couldn't find a wiki.. couldn't 
find any doc on any of my systems either..?

_______________________________________________
INFO: https://windowmaker.org/lists/listinfo/wm-user
ARCHIVE: https://windowmaker.org/lists/archive/wm-user/
FAQ: http://windowmaker.org/faq.html