Re: [Synaptic-devel] New download/execute dialog

[Michael Vogt]

On Thu, Nov 27, 2003 at 11:55:27AM +0100, Jean-Michel POURE wrote:
> Le Jeudi 27 Novembre 2003 11:32, Sebastian Heinlein a écrit :
> > I made a new glade mockup for the download and execute dialog.
> >
> > Both dialogs are merged into a notebook. But I am not sure if this could
> > be easily implemented or better than two single dialogs.
> >
> > In the download list only active and failed downloads would be shown.
> > This would keep the list more clear and we could also do without an
> > extra error dialog, since the user would see all failed downloads and
> > could choose between ignoring them or to cancel the whole process. The
> > ignore button should be disabled so long as no download failed.

A user suggested a while ago two lists. One with completed downloads
and the other with the active downloads. I'm unsure if this is a good
solution though. 

> > If all downloads are completed the dialog would automatically switch to
> > the next tab or window - the executing of the changes.
> 
> Nice dialog. I am not sure I understand the word "notebook" (sorry for my 
> English).

I like the dialog too!

> This question may be stupid: would it be possible to replace the bottom pane 
> with this dialog during installation? From a user point of view, having very 
> few Windows is important. There are always five windows opened on my station 
> at the same time. :)

Also it's possible, I don't like doing it. It causes all sorts of
trouble and glade does not support it very well. OTOH, it might be
worth a try. I'll consider it and may hack something up as a
prototype. 

> But, the main idea is that Synaptics is a possible solution for a Debian/RPM 
> installer. Like any installer, Synaptics could display installation progress 
> bars showing both 1) total status and 2) current package status.
> 
> I don't know if the interactive shell can also be integrated in the bottom 
> pane (like a Konqueror shell). It may cause thread problems.
> 
> Is it technically possible?

What kind of interactive shell do you have in mind? One like we
currently have? This is possible, but libapt will download all
packages first before it start to unpack and configure them. 

I would love to hide the terminal from the user, but deb packages does
not offer a way to parse the progress information while installing
(unlike rpm). The rpm frontend offers a nice progress-bar for the
package installation (the unpacking and configuring).

Synaptic is used in the connectiva installer btw. It has some hooks to
allow automatic installation, update and that sort of stuff.

thanks,
 Michael
-- 
Linux is not The Answer. Yes is the answer. Linux is The Question. - Neo