Messages in this thread | | | Date | Mon, 15 Dec 2008 13:03:28 -0800 | From | euphoria@inbox ... | Subject | losing a menuconfig session to a typo |
| |
It's easy to accidentally lose a menuconfig session. Scenarios start with a user being accustomed to hitting [right-arrow][return] to exit from a typical menu. Perhaps the user prefers his underutilized numeric keypad over adding to the beating [escape] takes. Scenarios finish with the user accidentally issuing [right-arrow][return] to "Do you wish to save? <Yes> <No>". I only lost a quick change, but it's easy to imagine how a few hours of menuconfig time might go away. "It'll just take a few minutes to whip my distro's kernel into shape." Yeah right. Four hours of guesswork and research later, you're tired, thinking about the make command to follow, [right-arrow][return] as usual, wait! no! damndamndamn!, yer snookered.
There are a variety of simple ways to address this. First, change the menu. Swapping the order of the <Yes> and <No> would be begging for even more trouble. However, the <Yes>/<No> decision could be made a <Yes>/<Maybe>/<No> decision. This leaves <Yes>, the predominant choice, in place. <Maybe>, in the disputed position, could simply present the same menu. Someone might even have a little well-deserved fun with <Maybe> menus. This doesn't seem all that intrusive to me. Second, print the diff. When changes aren't saved, a diff of the original config and one that would've been saved could simply be written to stdout followed by a little blurb, "Those were the changes you didn't save.". Third, add a save command. I save at comfortable intervals when editing everything else, why not kernel configurations? This reduces the scope of lossage in general.
Regards, [Ag] Andy Gaynor euphoria@inbox.com
| |