Bug#277395: Tasksel should also warn if no task is selected

[Rainer Dorsch <rdorsch@web.de>]

Am Dienstag, 14. Dezember 2004 22:15 schrieben Sie:
> On Tuesday 14 December 2004 21:35, Rainer Dorsch wrote:
> > - he did not select the task (yes, this bug is a real one)
> > - installation continued without a selected task. tasksel should check
> > if at least one task is selected and if not ask the user if he really
> > does not want to select any task.
>
> Don't think so.
> _Not_ selecting a task is a perfectly valid option which many user like.
> It gives a solid base system on which additional packages can be installed
> after the installation has finished.

Yes, I agree that this is a valid option and I even used this myself before 
for a minimal installation. Nevertheless, there is a (high?) chance that a 
user selects nothing by accident, i.e. hits return because he thinks return 
selects a task. (Is that a convention used by windows?)

At least that is what I observed. I have no statistics, so I can't tell if the 
chance is high. So if nothing is selected the user

- either did not want to select anything or
- was not aware that he needs to select with enter.

If the first case, the user needs to hit an extra return.

In the second case the user needs to restart installation. He could restart 
tasksel on the command line, but he has to know first.

Since the second case is a lot worse for the user than the first one, I would 
try to avoid the second one.

Another alternative would be to ask before starting tasksel, if a task should 
be selected. Then user which would not want to select a task says no and 
continues. If the user then selects to run tasksel and selects no task it is 
almost sure that the used hit the wrong key to select a task. This way both 
cases would be covered well.


Thanks,
Rainer

-- 
Rainer Dorsch
Alzentalstr. 28
D-71083 Herrenberg
07032-919495
Icq: 32550367