Re: [gentoo-dev] consistent Gentoo tool names

[Jason Rhinelander]

> It could just be g-config-<package>, or even gconfig-package.

Ooh, ooh, I know! How about just "gconf-"?  ;)

I remember quite some time ago (a year and a half, maybe two years?) of 
the tools mentioned in this thread that existed, some were of the form 
update-xyz, the other half were xyz-update - 'modules-update' comes to 
mind.  I understand the pull to want all of the similar tools to be 
consistent, and using a "config-xyz" or "update-xyz" makes the tools 
easier to find*.

That said, 'xyz-(update|config)' makes more /natural/ sense.  If I know 
that I need to run the module script, I can hit 'module<tab>' and get 
the right script, or at least a small list of commands.  Likewise for 
most others (though some need a '-' for tab-completion purposes): 
opengl, etc, gcc, etc.  I don't know about you, but normally when I'm 
using one of these tools I have an express purpose in mind: "change 
opengl libraries," "change to a different gcc," "see if any etc files 
have updates," "update my kernel module dependencies", etc.  My purposes 
are generally not "see what configuration I can change today."

Unfortunately, I don't have a perfect solution, only suggestions.  The 
idea of "just stick a document somewhere" doesn't cut it - you have the 
same problem of how to direct people to that document.  Add another 
document pointing to that document, ad infinitum?

What about the possibility of some sort of configuration script wrapper? 
  Call it "update", for the sake of simplicity.  Then I could run:

update gcc
update opengl
update modules
update etc

Then various *-config and *-update programs could register themselves 
somehow, so that "update --help" could list all the things that can be 
updated on the current system, and could (and should) even include 
descriptions of what the various commands do.  Someone could then write 
a fairly trivial bash-completion script to allow 'update <tab><tab>' to 
list all the configuration tools on my system, but good old 'etc-update' 
would still be there when my first thought is "etc" instead of "update".




* (As a side note, to the end of uniformity, opengl-update should 
probably change to config-opengl (or opengl-config), since it has more 
in common with the other 'config' scripts than 'update' scripts. 
'update' should mean "update my system," while 'config' should mean 
"change something on my system" - where "something" can generally be 
changed back with the same tool.)

-- Jason Rhinelander
-- Gossamer Threads, Inc.

Chris Smith wrote:
> On Tuesday 16 March 2004 20:00, Donnie Berkholz wrote:
>
>>Finally, I was pondering a gentoo-* prefix on all of these, to ensure an
>>even more consistent and easily findable set of tools. That way,
>>`gentoo-<tab><tab>` would find every Gentoo tool.
>
>
> SNAP!
>
> Was just about to suggest the same thing. It doesn't even have to be gentoo
> (too long, i remember that redhat-config-network was a crappy name to type).
> It could just be g-config-<package>, or even gconfig-package.
>
> Although gentoo-* has the advantage of just hitting gentoo-<tab> and getting
> the list of stuff. Whereas a "g" would trawl up all the gnome crap.
>
> Cheers,
> Chris.
>
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