NAME

       doc_GOALS_md - Goals

       • improve robustness of configuration systems

         • reject invalid configuration

         • avoid common programming errors by using better bindings

       • allow software to be better integrated on configuration level

       • postpone some decisions from programmers to maintainers/administrators:

         • syntax of the configuration files

         • side effects (e.g. logging, vcs commit, notifications)

         • flexible adoption to specific needs

         • adoption of standards (xdg, xml, json)

       • reduce  duplication  of  code  (a single parser/generator used by everyone accessing a specific part of
         configuration)

   Target
       • Embedded: Elektra is on the frontier for embedded systems  because  of  its  tiny  core  and  the  many
         possibilities with it`s plugins.

       • Server:  Elektra  is  ideal suited for a local configuration storage by mounting existing configuration
         files into the global tree. Nodes using Elektra can be  connected  by  already  existing  configuration
         management tools.

       • Desktop:  Elektra  allows applications to read and write from a global configuration tree. Missing is a
         description (schema) so that these values actually can be shared.

   Quality Goals
       1.) Simplicity

       An overly complex system cannot be managed nor understood.  Extensibility  brings  some  complex  issues,
       which  need  to  be  solved  -  but  in a way so that the user sees either nothing of it or only needs to
       understand very simple concepts so that it works flawlessly. Special care for simplicity is taken for the
       users:

       • Endusers when reconfiguring or upgrading should never take any notice of Elektra, except that it  works
         more robust, better integrated and with less problems.

       • Programmers should have multiple ways to take advantage of Elektra so that it flawlessly integrate with
         their system.

       • Plugin Programmers: it should be simple to extend Elektra in any desired way.

       • Application`s Maintainers to correctly setup+upgrade KDB

       • Administrators that want to change the maintainers setup according to their needs

       2.) Robustness

       Configuration Systems today suffer badly from:

       • weak input validation

       • faulty transformations from strings to other types

       • no error messages

       • undefined behaviour

       We want to tackle this problem.

       3.) Extensibility

       There are so many variants of

       • storage formats

       • frontend integrations

       • bindings

       Nearly  every  aspect  of  Elektra must be extremely extensible. On the other side semantics must be very
       clear and well defined so that this extensible system works reproducible and predictable.

       Only key/value pairs are the common factor and a  way  to  get  and  set  them,  everything  else  is  an
       extension.

       4.) Performance

       Configuration  is  the  main  impact  for  bootup and startup time. Elektra needs to be similar fast then
       current solutions. Ideally it should get faster because  of  centralized  optimization  endeavours  where
       everyone using Elektra can benefit from.

       Only pay for what you need.

Version 0.8.14                                   Tue Dec 15 2015                          doc_GOALS_md(3elektra)