[xmonad] Re: Automatic configuration

[Braden Shepherdson]

Maurí­cio wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> What about if some next xmonad release comes
> with an automatic configurator? It could
> work like that:
> 
> xmonad-config --default
> xmonad-config --gnome
> xmonad-config --ubuntu-gnome
> xmonad-config --kde
> xmonad-config --arossato
> xmonad-config --dons
> xmonad-config --droundy
> xmonad-config --sjanssen
> etc.
> 
> Such utility would just generate a xmonad.hs
> in the proper place that we could use as
> a template that is supposed to work without
> changes under different environments or
> supporting a list of features.
> 
> Best,
> Maurício
> 

I like the principle but not the execution of this idea. What would the 
internals of that program look like? It's just a list of pre-made 
xmonad.hs files, and it spits one out based on the command-line argument.

I think it would be better done with a directory with such example files 
in it. Currently, source distributions of xmonad come with the standard 
default config in man/xmonad.hs. There is no reason why we can't expand 
this to include xmonad-default.hs, xmonad-gnome.hs, etc., perhaps with a 
README to explain how to use one of them yourself.

If our binary distributions also have such a directory, I think that's 
the best place. If they don't, I'm not certain where the best spot is. 
It's certainly far more user-friendly (and makes an excellent first 
impression) for a new user to just copy that config file into place, 
mod+q, and it works.


Braden Shepherdson
shepheb