On Tue, 3 May 2016 11:53:33 +0200
Didier Kryn <kryn@???> wrote:

>      Yes, I know. All these front-ends use wpa_supplicant in their 
> kitchen. I just wonder why they find it more clever to re-do on their 
> own what wpa_supplicant can do alone.

I think I can answer that.

Wpa_supplicant has three front ends that I know of: wpa_cli, wpa_gui,
and wpa_passphrase. Wpa_passphrase' capability is limited to taking an
SSID and password and making something that can be appended
to /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf in order to interact with
that SSID.

Wpa_gui, and *especially* wpa_cli, are structured so the human must
give information in wpa_supplicant API terms, rather than in human
terms. Wpa_gui does one of the worst jobs of human engineering of any
software I've seen.

The ideal interface would be an nCurses thing that is structured pretty
much like Network Manager. Network Manager got the human engineering
almost completely right. Too bad about all the dbus and X requirements.

SteveT

Steve Litt
April 2016 featured book: Rapid Learning for the 21st Century
http://www.troubleshooters.com/rl21