[virt-tools-list] [libosinfo 7/8] rfc: Infer ISO language from label

[Zeeshan Ali (Khattak)]

On Tue, Dec 4, 2012 at 1:01 PM, Daniel P. Berrange <berrange at redhat.com> wrote:
> On Tue, Dec 04, 2012 at 11:47:06AM +0100, Christophe Fergeau wrote:
>> On Mon, Dec 03, 2012 at 06:30:18PM +0200, Zeeshan Ali (Khattak) wrote:
>> > I agree with you that it would be nice to avoid this mapping all
>> > together but if its not possible/feasible, these mappings should be in
>> > the XML like rest of OS specific stuff.
>>
>> I could do that, but the C code would still have to match the regex with
>> data from the table, which is only useful to Windows anyway, so the C code
>> would still be somehow Windows specific.
>
> Looking at the problem more broadly, I believe we have a general need
> to have OS specific data maps for several installation aspects. In the
> OsinfoInstallConfig class we have setters for the keyboard layout,
> language,

AFAICT, we already have solution for those. It involves maps but in
the xml itself.

> and timezone.

Oh, I had forgotten that needs mapping too.

> The values required for each of these setters
> is really OS-specific. To properly isolate apps from this, we need to
> have a data map concept, so libosinfo defines a canonical set of keyboard,
> language and timezone values, and then maps to the OS-specific values
> internally.
>
> This ISO language extraction is just another example of the need for
> a general datamap capability IMHO, and while we only see it for Windows
> currently, I would not be suprised if other OS we encounter in the future
> need it too.
>
> I did actually start hacking up datamap support, but never finished it.

Not sure there is really a need to do mapping in the code for at least
the installers. Apart from app developers, we need to think about
non-C-hackers to be able to add data (including installer script
templates). If we put this in C, anyone wanting to add a new OS and/or
its installer will then be required to have to hack on libosinfo in C.

-- 
Regards,

Zeeshan Ali (Khattak)
FSF member#5124