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On Mon, 2009-02-02 at 07:43 +0000, Duncan wrote: |
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> Those *.fdi files can be headaches in other cases as well and |
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> unfortunately aren't as easy to find proper documentation on as the |
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> traditional configuration they replace. It may be great for newbies, but |
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> it sure gives *ix traditionalists headaches when stuff doesn't work as |
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> the *ix gods intended it to! =:^) |
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You hit that nail spot-on, buddy! I cut my teeth in Internet-land back |
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in the 90s on BSDI Unix and learned the standard *ix way of doing |
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things. The Unix toolset was a huge tinkertoy set that could be cobbled |
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and molded to fit just about any need we had. Some of it was klunky and |
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awkward, but it just worked! If you didn't understand how to use a |
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tool, there was a man page, and so I learned to read and understand the |
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particular brand of pigin-English geek-ish used in most man pages. I |
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was never one of those Unix fanatics who insisted on using emacs for |
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everything, but I dam sure appreciated the structure and the text-based |
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configuration of everything. |
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|
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And I don't think there's a Linux newbie out there, no matter how |
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brilliant, who wouldn't just scratch his head and throw up his hands |
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over this kind of problem. I had to hunt for 6 months for a solution to |
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the CD mounting problem before I happened to find one. |
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|
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I certainly understand the advantages of XML, and I wouldn't mind if |
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standard configurations for essential services were migrated into XML |
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format, but so far, the lack of concise and centralized documentation, a |
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la man pages and even info or html files, is appalling! Narry even a |
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DTD file for the XML stuff. Bah!! |
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> In another case, newer xorg can ignore the xorg.conf setting for keyboard |
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> and mouse until the proper "magic" incantation is added. (Section |
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> Serverflags, Option "AllowEmptyInput" 0) In theory, *.fdi files are |
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> supposed to take over, but while the most basic ones work, non-standard |
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> keyboard layouts and etc don't without tweaking the appropriate *.fdi |
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> files, but the documentation of exactly what and where to tweak them is |
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> way harder to come by than say the xorg.conf manpage, and doesn't exist |
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> at all in some cases. |
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That's saying a lot, Duncan. The documentation on X has historically |
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been pretty scattered and fragmented, but in the case of .fdi files, |
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it's damn near nonexistent, which is worse. |
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|
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If it works, don't fix it! |
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|
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-- |
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Lindsay Haisley | "The difference between | PGP public key |
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FMP Computer Services | a duck is that one leg | available at |
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512-259-1190 | is both the same" | http://pubkeys.fmp.com |
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http://www.fmp.com | - Anonymous | |