config file soup was Re: Considering ConsoleKit and GSettings/DConf

[Chris Brannon]

Bill Cox wrote:
> I'll just point out that in Vinux today, users have to edit three
> entirely separate sets of speech-dispatcher configuration files:
> /etc/speech-dispatcher controls the instance of speech-dispatcher used
> with speakup.  /var/lib/gdm/.speech-dispatcher controls GDM's copy of
> speech-dispatcher at the login window.  And users control their own
> Gnome instance with ~/.speech-dispatcher.

Yes, the config file situation is confusing.
Personally, here's what I'd like to see: defaults that can be overridden
on either a global or per-user basis.
E.G., a user setting overrides a global setting, and a global setting
overrides a default.
Right now, there's no way to merge user and global settings.
Either we read all of our settings from the user's config files, or we
read all of them from the global config files.  It's all or nothing.
As a user, you can't pick and choose which of the global settings you wish
to override.  Does that make sense?
I think we're both talking about the same thing.

I hope that the gsettings stuff will make things simpler, both from a user's
perspective and a programmer's perspective.
I'm sure that there is a way to manipulate gsettings values from
the command-line, as well.

-- Chris