[Mageia-dev] Deprecating startx

[Wolfgang Bornath]

2012/3/7 Colin Guthrie <mageia at colin.guthr.ie>:
> 'Twas brillig, and Wolfgang Bornath at 07/03/12 12:02 did gyre and gimble:
>> 2012/3/7 Colin Guthrie <mageia at colin.guthr.ie>:
>>> 'Twas brillig, and Wolfgang Bornath at 07/03/12 10:13 did gyre and gimble:
>>>>
>>>> Different from Guillaume I do care about the impact for the user.
>>>> There are many out there who are used to startx and also docs and
>>>> howtos which use it. Therefore we will need an explanation for
>>>> switching off startx.  An explanation to be used in forums, which is a
>>>> bit more than just a link to a bug report. In other words: to be
>>>> understood by non-techie users.
>>>
>>> To answer Guillaume's question, I wasn't personally planning on removing
>>> it fully. Just documenting that it is broken and that users should not
>>> use this as a mechanism for starting X.
>>>
>>> I would propose just putting in "echo 'startx is deprecated. Here is
>>> why.....   Press any key to continue anyway.' >&2; read -n 1" in the
>>> startx script such that users using it will be warned. Does this seem
>>> sensible?
>>
>> It is sensible and enough for the situation at hand (when the user
>> actually punches in "startx" and the command does not work as
>> expected). In principle on the same level of information like "file
>> not found". That's all which is needed from the technical side.
>>
>> People more close to the users will have to think of an explanation
>> without tech-talk, understandable for the user who comes to the forum
>> complaining that the command he had been using for many years (or
>> which is written in a documentation) does not work.
>
> For the avoidance of doubt, I would expect that hitting return would
> still end up starting X, just that the afore mentioned (and dutifully
> explained to the user) problems with ACLs etc. will be present.
>
> I'll be able to write some text here that is concise, so I'll do this
> shortly.

Great!

Now I'll have to teach this waltzing greybeard in the mirror some new
moves .... :)

-- 
wobo