[Config4gnu-developer] forms implementation and more

[Jason L. <jl...@me...>]

I just checked in a bunch of changes, so I wanted to let you know about
them. Here are the two main changes...

1. class definition files can now specify what nodes types to make children.
E.g. for the "Samba" class definition file, it specifies to make children
"SambaGlobal" or "SambaShare", overriding what the parser outputs.

2. When you double-click on a SambaGlobal or SambaShare node in the GUI, a
new tab will appear with a form. The form will load with current values, and
when you change the values in the form the corresponding properties will be
updated.

--
If you already have a copy of the repository, you may need to `cvs checkout'
again to get any new directories that have been created since the last
checkout.

./autogen.sh --prefix=/tmp/cfg
make install
/tmp/cfg/bin/gnome-cfg

--
Now for the "more" part of this message

I've been thinking about making the GUI more like a generic XML file editor,
and then with the XML editor and the parsers which convert to-and-from XML
we'd have a pretty nice system. Now this XML editor is not like the common
XML editors you see when you search for "XML Editor" on the web-- it is not
for actually editing XML syntax. Instead it will provide an object-oriented
view of the data, and it would be flexible enough that the user would not
need to hand-edit any XML.

An illustration: a contrast between a traditional XML editor and the XML
editor I am proposing:

In a traditional XML editor you see:
<book-list>
<book>
<title>Config4GNU for Dummies</title>
<author>J. Long and J. Yackoski</author>
<year>2002</year>
</book>
</book-list>

It might have syntax highlighting, auto-completion of elements, and
validation, but you're really manipulating the raw XML syntax.

In this "enhanced" XML editor, you'd see a list of books on the left side of
the screen and a form for entering the attributes of the book on the right.
Really more like a database entry screen, maybe.

Anyways, it's just a thought... I'm thinking that a powerful and generic XML
editor like this would be pretty useful in general, and this would make our
work be useful beyond the realm of our "little";) project.

Jason