[Rock-dev] [Orocos-Dev] Proposal for an update to the autoproj configuration structure

[Sylvain Joyeux]

On 09/22/2012 01:34 PM, Alexander Duda wrote:
> autoproj/remotes:
> The remote package sets should not be touched by normal users therefore
> I would not show them in the autoproj folder.
That would IMO make it even more confusing as part of the configuration 
would be hidden
> Another reason against
> them is that if you are changing into the remotes folder you are also
> silently changing the current repository.
Not exactly right: you are changing the current repository when you are 
changing into a specific remote, because they are currently symlinks. 
Which is something I am trying to fix with the proposed changes.
> A possible solution would be for me to change remotes into .remotes to
> have a convenient way to access them for the maintainer of the remote
> package sets but to hide them for new uses who can get easily confused.
The point of the change is to not hide the remotes, but make the remotes 
more straightforward to understand: they are listed in the main 
configuration and look like the main configuration (no fundamental 
difference anymore). The name is straightforward (it is listed in the 
config file). I am a bit against hiding them as I found, along the way, 
that hiding big parts of your configuration leads to even more confusion.
>
> File structure:
> Why do you stick to the YAML format? The error handling is just a pain
> in the ass especially after they changed from syck to psych. For me YAML
> is fine for everything which is generated by autoproj like the proposed
> options.yml but I would rather go for a nice DSL than plain YAML
> configuration files as in both cases I have to look up the keywords
> anyway but the first one gives you the ability to generate nice error
> messages. Furthermore you could put everything into the proposed
> config.rb. But I guess this is just a matter of taste.
The rationale was that new users only have to edit YAML files, which 
some people find easier than Ruby code (especially since YAML is also 
the config-file-format-of-choice for ROS tools). However, I find your 
proposition interesting in general ... I'd like to have some more 
feedback from "new users" (we need to ping Leif :P)

-- 
Sylvain Joyeux (Dr.Ing.)
Senior Researcher

Space & Security Robotics
Underwater Robotics

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