** Reply to message from Hans-Albert Schneider <Hans-Albert.Schneider@mchp.siemens.de> on Thu, 15 Nov 2001 18:51:36 +0100 (MET) I take this as nearly total agreement with what I have written. Thank you for your advice to acquire a Web interface. I will think about that as soon as I buy my own server.
"SG" == Stan Goodman <stan@hashkedim.com> writes:
SG> ** Reply to message from Hans-Albert Schneider SG> <Hans-Albert.Schneider@mchp.siemens.de> on Thu, 15 Nov SG> 2001 12:46:35 +0100 (MET) [...] >> This is a very common format for patches in UNIX; there is >> even a tool called "patch" that understands and applies >> this format.
SG> Whether or not it is a very common format for patches in SG> the Unix world,
I did not intend to blame anybody by the remark about the "very common format"; I do not know everything either. I just wanted to say "in case you wonder", and "you may happen to see this in other places, too".
SG> it is shameful, nothing less, in 2001 for software which SG> is intended for use by non-programmers to require this SG> kind of "tighten this bolt, loosen that one" maintenance.
Hmm, I think that SmartList is too powerful to forsee all possible uses (thanks to the underlying procmail, and to the ability to invoke UNIX commands). It is therefore probably impossible to wrap all the possibilities with an intuitive interface.
However, the more common things should be integrated; e.g., I think that the "multiple maintainers" patch does not hurt if it becomes the standard. The same holds for the other patches given in the SmartList FAQ.
SG> It is the result either of the laziness of the developers SG> or of a deep need for the ego boost of being "insiders".
I don't think so. Keep in mind that the developers work on SmartList in their spare time; they don't get payed for it. So it is only too natural that they focus on core functionality.
SG> There is no reason at all why Smartlist should not be SG> controllable by an intuitive interface requiring no SG> knowledge of Unix incantations.
The FAQ lists some web interfaces, if you prefer them.
Personally, I have to say that most adaptions I made to "my" lists required writing rc-files, and thus required a lot of Smartlist and UNIX knowledge.
-- Stan Goodman Qiryat Tiv'on Israel "And then We said to the Children of Israel: 'Dwell securely in the Promised Land. And when the last warning will come to pass, We will gather you together from your exiles.'" -- The Prophet Mohammad, in The Quran, Sura 17:104, The Night Journey, giving the authoritative Islamic view of the Jewish connection with the Land of Israel.