[comp.dcom.sys.cisco] Ideal router user interface

root@yunexus.UUCP (Operator) (04/11/90)

From: mellon@fenris.pa.dec.com (Ted Lemon)
>Ideally, though, the user interface should be graphical,...

shaffer@net-sun1.nih.gov (Micheal Alan Shaffer) writes:
>Actually I think there is a need for both interfaces. 

  Indeed, both are desirable, and the techniques are as old as time
(Well, as MIT's Project MAC).
  You write a set of functions that do the work, and take the
configuration parameters and options as parameters.  You link
a simple line-mode interface to this, with very few features
for running on the machine itself.
  You optionally provide a featurefull front end, to be linked
either on the router/whatever if space permits, or via fpc from
a dumb unix box.
  You write an X front-end that uses **the dumb line-at-a-time interface**
do the operations from a remote location.  A good example is xmh...
X does the pretty stuff, mh does the work.

--dave (Multics bigot!) c-b