GTK fe: some toughts, some questions
Hi
I'm back from a two-days system restore marathon after my laptop's hdd
melted.
I've been so able to do a complete test of the new gtk frontend and now
i can definitely tell it works great: a complete debian installation
could be completed in X without the slighest problem and the newly
installed system booted perfectly after installation :) .
http://www.swer.it/~attilio.fiandrotti/gtkx/final.jpg
Here is a list i've compiled about todos
important bugs to fix
-none at the moment
bugs to fix
-the partitioning progress values are not handled correctly by
progress_set()
todo
-remove deprecated gtk functions with gtk+ replacements
-Allow every widget (not only multiselect, like now) to properly hangle
long question_descriptions in sourrounding frame title (we can both use
textareas to be included in frames or simply modify long title
questions, like the installation program one)
-enable/disable back and forward button as needed: actually this check
is skipped
-verify that gtk_init() input parameters, that are han-created, are no
cause of problems
-the X test case works but i haven tested it with other languages than
italian (greek..)
improvments
-fix boxes aspect: now boxes containing widgets automatically
shrink/expand, we should assign the user interface a fixed size
-disable main menu options that need previous steps to be completed: if
the user has not yet installed the base system there is no sense to alow
him to click on the "install bootloader" button
-while progress bar completes things such installing the base system
(actualy gtk_progress_set is called but gtk_go it's not, so the
main-menu on the leftarea is not shown to the user: no big issue, just
to be coherent with others steps of the installation) we should also
show the main_menu (unsensitive) and maybe some info in the targetbox?
further improvments
-make the cancel button in jump confirmation dialog work: to allow the
user to cancel a jump if he changes his mind
-chechmarks for every configured main menu item: after an installation
step has been successifully completed a green check or simply an "ok"
should be placed aside the corresponding main menu button to remember
the unexperienced user about the steps already successfully completed
-ask the user if he wants a coffee to be prepared while he waits for the
installation to complete ;)
As you can see there are still many things to do, and we must decide about
-the testcase to be possibly packed into an experimental netinst cd:
actually the X testcase is just a "stub" to an X server, even if we
include it as an udeb loaded before language selection it won't work
until network is configured.
A fast way to get around the problm could be to borrow for some times
anaconda's (Red Hat instalaion program) X embedded server and pack it
into a udeb, until a stable gdk dfb is available (at the end of summer?)
The anaconda X package includes all we need to make the x gtk d-i fe
work: this would allow us to start a gtk instalation from the boot.
-the "further improvments" proposed improvements (forget about the
coffee, i was just joking..): for my thesis i need to include those
points in the debian installer, but of course they are not necessary for
the gtk fe to work.
Anyway they would improve the fe usability and user friendliness, and so
we could make out of the debian-installer something really better than
rh's anaconda (which is somehow very similar to d-i).
If we should decide to keep those improvments in the frontend should we
also commit them over the old frontend? as cjwatson said the gtk fe has
a long history and he's right, (the core code has just some small
modifications) but actually the fe is somehow something new.
ciao
Attilio
Reply to: