Michael Rueger <m.rueger at acm.org> wrote:
> 
> Hi all,
> 
> is anybody working on implementing the InternetConfiguration primitives
> on Unix?


Most of this stuff isn't available Unix.  Thus, people will have to set
up a Squeak config file or something.  Not fun.

By the way, if you pull this info from the central registry on MS
Windows, you will frequently get bogus information, because many
programs seem to use their own settings in favor of the communal
settings.  This is not just arrogance -- it's entirely possible that an
app will want more detailed information than is in the central registry.
 Thus on MS Windows, too, you may end up having a Squeak-specific list
of settings somewhere.


Let's step back a moment.  This list of info is a really simplified view
of a person's Internet existence.  I use two different IRC servers, and
2 POP servers.  I have 2 email addresses that I use with much frequency.
 I prefer to connect to USENET by running a command, but if that's not
available I need to use a custom port, not just a certain host.  Thus,
while I don't think I'm that unusual of a user, my true Internet
settings don't fit into these blanks.   And thus, any IRC, USENET,
email, or whatever else program in *Squeak* is likely to need more
information than this, just like with the MS Windows programs I
mentioned above.

But that's okay.  OO design, like a lot of things, is largely about
being naive in a carefully considered way.  :)   Still, we need to know
what the purpose is to do this right.

And anyway, to return to the beginning, much of this info just isn't
there.  For anyone curious, a quick attempt to list the things that are
at least sometimes available gives:

	real name  (from /etc/passwd)
	NNTP server (from $NNTPSERVER, or from /etc/nntpserver)
	email address (sometimes!  from $EMAIL)
	SMTP host (localhost!)
	finger (uh, localhost again!  maybe.)
	WWW hame page  (in theory,  there's an environment variable.  in
practic, probably most people don't set it.)
	IRC server (from the environment.  again, though, probably uncommon.)



Maybe these settings should be left in-image?  Heck, you may even want
different settings for different images....

-Lex

PS -- That's kinda funny that your VM knows what archie server you
prefer, but that it doesn't know your name.  :)


>getArchiePreferred      USA, InterNIC:archie.internic.net:
>getRealName     PersonalName