GTK frontend updated in SVN
Hi
i've just committed the new GTK frontend to SVN, Frans can you update
the udeb? (since many of the remaining issues that are awaiting to be
solved will require some thinking i guess a further update to the udeb
won't be required before a week at least).
Many usability issues have been solved in this relase, mostly related to
keyboard navigation of the widgets.
Some issues that have been fixed (tested to work with GTKX) seem they
haven't because of bad behaviour of GTKDFB (as reported in the attached
buglist).
The buglist is still far away from being empty, but most of the reported
bugs are now categorizable as wishlist: i would ask you to express
yourself abut what has to be implemented and what doesn't.
The most important issue that still has to be fixed is the progressbar:
it's now diplayed all the time and shall disappear when it's not needed.
Also many part of code need cleanup, especially where widget packaging
is done using integer values inside the code nstead of using #define.
To do this i was thinking of removing from the frontend parts of the
code related to the main menu hack since i think it's not pratical and
will never be used (this would simplify the frontend's code a lot).
ciao
Attilio
Status of the frontend updated after SVN commit 31733 (28-10-2005)
*Reported issues related to the frontend
-The progress bar should be moved to a modal popup window or something
like this (basically should not be continuously displayed on the screen).
To achive this we must handle in a clever way situations where client
debconf apps do not call gtk_progressbar_stop() after updating the
progressbar and before asking a question (more precisely before calling
gtk_go() ).
Shall the progressbar be NEWT-like (title above it, current action below
it) or GNOME HIG-compliant (current action displayed inside the
progressbar, title displayed above it) ?
-Some extended descriptions include Blank lines between text lines: this
was needed with the NEWT frontend but makes no longer sense in the GTK
frontend, so blank lines should simply not be diplayed in the help area.
Note that having to display too long extended descriptions will force
the question to be diplayed in the bottom part of the screen rather than
in the middle, so blank lines-removal is needed.
-GtkTextView widgets esed to display question's descriptionand extended
description shall be skipped during TAB navigation
-When multiple questions are displayed togheter (e.g. debian mirror
manual choice) a better vertical packaging is needed in order not to
leave blank space between questions.
Note thet widgets used to display multiple questions togheter are
packaged into a scrolled window, that need childs widgets to expand in
order not to collapse over itself.
-The installer has problems with Arabic, The letters aren't joined
- If you switch to VT2 (shell console) while the frontend is running, the
frontend will "hijack" VT2 making the installer completely unusable.
THis bug was reported to show up under some circumstances, more
investigations are needed
Note that this only happens if you switch when the frontend is busy!
There is no problem if the frontend is waiting for input.
* Reported issues related to GTKDFB (not real bugs inside gtk.c code)
The following reported bugs are not related directly to the code inside
gtk.c but rather to GTKDFB.
All the mentioned above bugs do not shouw up using GTKX.
- when you "tab" into a list question, the default is always set to
the top of the list instead of the current default value; the
current default should be respected and the frontend should make
sure it is shown by scrolling the list if needed
(example: select English as language and when
This bug shows up in GTKDFB 2.0.9 only.
- RTL patch by Eugeniy works for almost everything inside the frontend
except for text inside GTKTreeView widgets
RTL support was introduced first in GTK 2.2, so this bug affects only
GTKDFB 2.0.9
-you can't select in lists by typing the first letter (as in newt
frontend) on GTKDFB since this is an unimplemented feature in GTKDFB
(any version)
(Gdk-DirectFB-WARNING **: gdk_display_request_selection_notification
Unimplemented function)
*Ideas for future development
-The SELECT handler should vertically align translated languages names.
This can be quickly implemented in an hacky way or, in a more proper
way, by using plugins
-a MULTISELECT single question should be handled by a gtktreeview rather
than by a list of gtkcheckboxes, this because a list of checkboxes is a
lot slower to be drawn and managed than a GtkTreeView.
Also, GtkTreeView widgets have native scrolling capabilities.
-In the partman's main menu partitions could be displayed as childs to
disks drives: this can be obtained by hacking a bit the frontend in
order not to have to change the partman templates
-When pressing "ESC" using the NEWT frontend you get back to the main
menu: should the GTK frontend implement such a functionality?
-"error", "text", "note" questions in the GTK FE are displayed by the
same question handler, while the NEWT FE flashes in red the screen when
an error question is diplayed.
Shouldn't also the GTK FE act somehow this way, maybe
Eduard Silva has drawn some icons(an "i" icon aside the question when
displaying a "note" or a "text" question and a "!" icon when displaying
an error)
-A text is displayed in the bottom part of the screen and tells the user
about shortcut shortcut commands: shall the GTK FE display this string
too? maybe in a statusbar at the bottom of the screen?
-A text is displayed in the bottom part of the screen and tells the user
about shortcut shortcut commands in the NEWT frontend: shall the GTK
FE display this string too? maybe in a statusbar at the bottom of the
screen?
-As "execute a shell", neither "configure base sytem" works in the GTK FE
Maybe we should suppress those functions for now. Maybe a new "shell-gtk"
udeb is needed instead of the current one?
Guess that depends on the reasons for the failure.
Thinking out load... A shell-gtk udeb could open a shell in a new window
and be hidden when you click the main window with an icon showing to
activate the shell again.
Maybe we could also show icons by default that open a window (with
scrollbar) showing logfiles (instead of having to switch to VT3/4)...
Maybe we should have a menu that allows the user to select such functions.
Ah well, nice ideas for future development :-)
*TODO list for a near future
-Switching from 800x600 VGA to 640x480 VGA
-Merging the gtk-miniiso in the main d-i tree: before this some bugs
reported by frans pop must be solved
-Packaging fonts in regular udebs rather than tarballs: help by font
mantaners is needed, has someone already contacted them?
-Switching to GTKDFB 2.8.3.
This will be tought, since many libraries (cairo, ..) have not yet been
packaged into udebs and preliminary testing on integration is still to come.
Anyway benefits will be many and GTKDFB 2.0.9, altough working, is very
updated and many advanced GTK features are missing/buggy
-Testing on archs different from i386 : ATM this is the only arch where
miniiso images are knows to be built correctly.
EddyP is known to have made some experiments on PPC but it seems he's
stuck with segfaults that prevent the frontend from working properly.
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