Wrapper or not, building a wrapper that works for as many use cases for as long a time as Shorewall has is something.

Frankly, it sounds like your suggesting that because he didn't invent the underlying network stack, or network protocols, that makes it a quick and dirty half day or so project. 99.9% of development work in recent years hasn't been inventing new stuff, it's been building wrappers. Wrappers that compose other well though out tech (which are hard choices to make), while maintaining the flexibility to actually be useful for more than a single project and a short period of time.

I know you said none of those things, however, that's what I read between the lines of a putdown comment like "It's just a wrapper...".

All software is built on abstractions. I’m sure IPTablss is a giant “wrapper” around the Linux OS networking stack.

Nothing wrong with a wrapper of the underlying system has had the real world field testing, longetivity, and adoption that IPTablws has.

wrote this last night when I was half asleep. I do know how to type "IPTables" :p

Exactly :)

And a computer is just a thing that allows assholes to broadcast their opinions.

Yes, and penicillin is just a pill that kills some bacteria.

C is just a wrapper around assembly.