Re: [Synaptic-devel] Updated UI Proposal

[Sebastian Heinlein]

Am Fr, den 23.01.2004 schrieb Gustavo Niemeyer um 14:48:
> > Here is a more polished ui proposal for the main window.
> > 
> > The glade file is appended.
> > 
> > To get a better idea about the design I have made a fake screenshot. You
> > can download it here (88 kbyte):
> > 
> > http://pimpldrive.pimpzkru.de/renate/synaptic/mockup.png
> 
> I like the general idea, but I think we need some discussion on it
> before working to replace the current scheme. Some general comments
> to start our discussion:
> 
> - Why do we have a combobox above the section list? What does it do?

You can take a look at the glade file it contains more options that are
not visible in the fake screen shot.

The combo box above the section list would allow you to choose between
"sections", "tags", "status" and "alphabet". It is a replacement for the
"X tree" menu items in the view menu.

> - We've lost the "Filters" button, and the two buttons of the "Find"
>   interactive dialog. That's not a big problem, since the Filters
>   stuff is available in the menu bar, and the Find dialog could have
>   its behavior changed to automatically restart the search.

The whole new concept depends on feature additions to gtk2.3/2.4:

At first the speed up of the treeview would allow you to use the "all
sections" item - with gtk2.2 this would take forever.

Secondly the treeview of 2.3/2.4 provides a filter method. So we can
hopefully use this method to filter the package list by name and short
description. The package list would instantly show matching packages
only while you are typing the search term(s) into the find field. There
should be no need for the buttons anymore.

The traditional and non-filtering search should be moved to the search
dialog. The glade file also contains a prototype.

The combobox on the left treeview combined with the predefined filters
and the instant find dialog would enable you to perform advanced
searches fast. The filter editor would be reserved for some rare cases
only. This is why I would like to remove the button from the main window
- it is still available through the menu.

> - We need three buttons to represent the possible changes to the state
>   of a package. The "Keep" button is missing from the dialog. Perhaps
>   it's time to drop buttons in favor of the popup dialog.

> - The "Undo" button should be moved to the global task bar.

The package state should be represented by the color and the new added
icons. The "keep" button is named "Undo" in my mockup - this is a little
bit misleading, but perhaps something like "reset" would be better.

I would like to disable non available buttons, e.g. disable
"undo/reset/keep" if no change was selected or disable "remove" if the
package is not installed. So the buttons would be real action buttons
and no toggle buttons anymore.

Another place for the package control buttons could be the toolbar:

Refresh List | Install, Upgrade, Remove, Reset | Upgrade All | Execute

("|" stands for new group)

I am unsure about relying on the context menu/menubar only, since on the
first look the user won't see any possibility to manipulate the package
status. But we could give it a try and make them invisible for testing.

Michael proposed to stabilize the internals of synaptic fist and work on
the ui after a 0.50 release. Because the new ui would be fully usable
with gtk 2.4 only I think that we still have got a lot of time for
discussion. :)

Regards,

Sebastian