First, I think a few boundaries are required. Are you producing a power supply to start a car (low volts high amps) or power a household device (high voltage and some current) or a bench top (low voltage low current).
For the latter, which I'm more familiar with since I design embedded processors, programmable low voltage (<10V) low current (< 600mA) PMICs (Power Management ICs) are becoming popular. National has a LP3970, designed to power the intel XScale processor, that has 8 LDOs and two switchers, all programmable via an I2C link. The LDOs are only good to 150mA and the switchers to 650mA. National has a great eval kit that is controlled via USB and a GUI in windows where you can program the output voltages with software dials. Intersil and TI also have similar parts.
Just a thought for powering the digital hobbiest.
Bob