Roadmap 2016

[Peter Lindener]

Hi
    Christian-

   Yes I get it that Genode already has a fairly nice configuration process
utilizing XML....   and you might be on the right track when you take my
comment about the use of a potentially augmented text / XML structure
editor for easier display / editing of these XML config files..
... but I have to confess I'm not all so much of a fan of XML in terms of
it's direct readability....  maybe it's a good middle ground... but in all
honesty, I would prefer a Json like syntax over XML.... or more exactly...
When people suggest that every thing should be encoded as an XML file... I
tend to concur with those in t crowed who just role there eyes...
   That is: there does seem potential for the use of domain specific
languages...   i.e. XML does not always seem to be the best answer...
   I'm just suggesting that the complexity jump to GUI based config may not
be the best trade-off in the context of smaller embedded Genode systems..

    Hope this helps.
     -Peter

On Wed, Dec 23, 2015 at 3:21 AM, Christian Helmuth <
christian.helmuth at ...1...> wrote:

> Hello Peter,
>
> thanks for your sharing your thoughts. Let me please comment on your
> remarks about configuration mechanisms for Genode...
>
> On Tue, Dec 22, 2015 at 02:08:17PM -0800, Peter Lindener wrote:
> > *   Norman wrote: " *Supplementing Genode with user-friendly means to
> > configure...**Right now,  **I use Vim as configuration front end, which
> is
> > cool...*"
> >     My thought: One can certainly get a lot of configuration usability
> out
> > of a basic, potentially colored, 2D ASCII text document. Not to mention
> how
> > much lighter and more portable the (potentially remote) terminal display
> > can be.
> >    So while GUI tool kits are great for some things, I'd like it if
> little
> > headless nodes running Genode (Snickerdoodle <http://krtkl.com/>) would
> be
> > just as easy to re/configure.   Thus I vote that Genode's next generation
> > of [ASCII] configuration files are both very easy to read, in addition to
> > edit with a (potentially augmented) terminal emulation program...   i.e.
> > lets not prematurely jump on the GUI bandwagon, before Genode achieves a
> > similar ease of configuration using a significantly lighter level of
> > display / keyboard interaction...
>
> I suggest you have a look at our release documentation for Genode
> 15.11 [1]. There we explain how Genode components are configured
> individually and assembled to meet functional and security
> requirements of specific use-case scenario. Furthermore, the basis for
> our configuration is XML syntax since the beginning (see [2] and [3]).
> For thorough documentation of the concept of component configuration
> you may have a look into the Genode Foundations book Chapter 4.6.
>
> From my point of view, this sheds some light on Norman's comment about
> using Vim to configure Genode, which should be taken literally: Any
> aspect of the system can be configured by editing XML config files and
> additionally our reporting mechanism is using the XML syntax too. I
> admit that I'm not striving for mere ASCII support but envision to use
> UTF-8 in the future for XML attribute values and node content, but
> that's a small detail. The mentioned appealing GUI "agents" are
> nothing but alternative front ends, but on the other hand important to
> get less technical users on board.
>
> [1]
> http://genode.org/documentation/release-notes/15.11#Uniform_run-time_configuration_concept
> [2]
> http://genode.org/documentation/release-notes/12.05#System_reconfiguration_at_runtime
> [3] http://genode.org/documentation/developer-resources/init
>
> >     given the goal stated above, why not at the same time provide a very
> > nice set of terminal interaction API's within the Genode framework, that
> > one can count on as a lower level system resource, such that other light
> > weight apps that run on Genode can also count that this terminal
> > interaction API might be made available as shared resource.
>
> If I'm not mistaking this comment entirely, I'd like to refer you to
> our neat APIs for XML handling, which are the Xml_node and the
> Xml_generator. We apply these tools throughout the Genode source if
> configurations and reports are processed. The most prominent component
> using them is Init, but also the windows manager components, our
> platform driver, device drivers, VirtualBox, and many more.
>
> So, what's currently missing for your use case may be a terminal-based
> "agent" for dynamic configuration if Vim is unsuitable. I personally
> see no need to add ncurses-like tools tailored for configuration, but
> your opinion may differ.
>
> Regards
> --
> Christian Helmuth
> Genode Labs
>
> http://www.genode-labs.com/ · http://genode.org/
> https://twitter.com/GenodeLabs · /ˈdʒiː.nəʊd/
>
> Genode Labs GmbH · Amtsgericht Dresden · HRB 28424 · Sitz Dresden
> Geschäftsführer: Dr.-Ing. Norman Feske, Christian Helmuth
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> _______________________________________________
> genode-main mailing list
> genode-main at lists.sourceforge.net
> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/genode-main
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.genode.org/pipermail/users/attachments/20151223/b4b060e4/attachment.html>