Re: gnome-apt status wrt UI document
On Sun, 6 Dec 1998, Havoc Pennington wrote:
> 3.4 Package sources
>
> We just use sources.list. I have not looked at the apt-pkg stuff to
> determine if there is a way to parse and write to sources.list; if there
> isn't, we will need one.
>
> 4.1 Initial config
>
> User should be able to set up list of sources the first time they
> start up Apt - this is automatically solved as soon as 3.4 is solved.
You can parse but not re-emit with comments. (pkgSourceList)
> 5.1 Obsolete sources
>
> Sounds like an apt-pkg issue.
What is an obsolete source?
> 5.2 Automatically installed packages
>
> An apt-pkg issue
This is that funny auto thing right? That is in there but needs a little
touching up.
> 5.3 Multiple package versions
>
> I don't see a way to access these in the current apt-pkg interface
You can show all available versions (VerIterator from a package) but you
can't select which version to install. Doing so is pretty easy I can add
it.
> - The only action from the UI design is "complete run," apt-pkg does
> not support only upgrading/installing/removing really.
These seperately are all evil :>
> - I have added Update to the actions menu; I've also added the option
> to "Mark upgrades" (apt-get upgrade) and "Smart Mark Upgrades"
> (apt-get dist-upgrade). These just mark packages, then you can
> adjust things to your liking and choose Complete Run to actually
> perform the installs/removals.
You might want to change the names of these. If the usere merrily goes
along and makes selections these options can resolve their problems.
> Details and Search were in the popup menu only, so I added them
> to the main menu as well. I haven't figured out how to do Hold
> with apt-pkg, so there is no Hold. The three Toggle options
Hold.. Hmm.
> There are no Auto or Source columns due to lack of apt-pkg support.
> They can be added later.
Which are these supposed to do?
> available versions because there is only one possible version
> that could be installed at any time (the one not currently installed).
> Again, changing this would seem to require apt-pkg support.
> I could be wrong about any of this of course. :-)
Again, you have access to all versions that are available in the database,
you just can't yet select one as the install candidate.
> 6.1.7.1 (Pre-)dependencies
>
> Right now Apt always asks whether to install dependencies. In the
> future it can be configurable.
The very original scheme was to have apt never prompt. It is annoying.
Very annoying. I can't recall if the UI spec said this, but showing
couners in a status line for the number of packages to
install/remove/upgrade as well as marking broken packages in red is a
really good way to handle this.
Instead of bringing up a dialog that says 'Oops, you can't do this, I"m
going to install Foo, bar and moo' (sounds like dselect, doesn't it?)
simply have installing a package make sure it is nonbroken automatically.
Let the user sort out side effects because in general there won't be any.
Maybe make a menu option to install without smarts.
Your preview can be seen by expanding the dep list for the package and
looking at broken deps (highlight these in red), when you hit I all the
red lines become black lines and the state of those packges change.
MarkInstall has a very limited scope in that regard, it is the
ProblemResolver that can do huge expansive things.
> 7.3 Sources
>
> I haven't looked at apt-pkg support for this, if it doesn't exist
> then it will need to. If it does then the dialog is fairly easy.
You need to integrate with the Mirror list as well somehow :>
There have been some minor tweaks in the newest cvs, you will need to make
a media change dialog and look at apt-get's installer code for some other
issues.
Jason
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