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>From rik  Fri Apr 23 17:43:23 1993 remote from crow
Reply-To: crow!rik
Received: by crow.noname (4.1/SMI-4.1)
	id AA04924; Fri, 23 Apr 93 17:43:23 MST
Date: Fri, 23 Apr 93 17:43:23 MST
From: crow!rik (Rik Farrow)
Message-Id: <9304240043.AA04924crow.noname>
To: uworld!uunet!usenix.org!sage
Subject: Re: SAGE job descriptions

I doubt that anyone in the SAGE list even uses GUI interfaces AT ALL for
system administration.  I am also rewriting my book, UNIX Administration
Guide for System V (Prentice Hall, 1989), and while we will include
some information about about using graphical interfaces, the main focus
will still be on working from the command line.

Why?  The graphical interface won't do everything I need it to do.  For
example, suppose I am upgrading an older 3B2 to a new SVR4 system.  There
are thirty accounts on the old system, along with home directory hierarchies.
Do you think that I, or any other competant system administrator would
go through a GUI menu system thirty times to copy MANUALLY the information
already stored in my old computer.  Not hardly.  I will edit the passwd
file and add the new entries.  Then I will use shell scripts to create
appropriate entries for the hidden password file.  Finally, I'll use
tar or cpio to move the home directories over.

Tasks like this are not included in menuing systems.  Yet they consist
of much of the work done by system administrators, unless they fit into
your category of user-administrators.  These are the people who need
GUI-interfaces.  The rest of us need to know file formats and command
arguments.

I know that USL would like people to ignore the real files and commands
and use the "safe" interfaces.  But this is often not possible, or
extremely inconvenient.  Please don't make System V MORE DIFFICULT to
use by hiding the details behind GUI interfaces.  It's your job to 
point out what's really happening when the GUI does its job.

Rik Farrow
Technical Editor, UNIX World Magazine
rikuworld.com				602 282 0242 (MST)