Re: Installer help text
On Wed, Feb 08, 2006 at 06:13:21AM -0600, John Buttery wrote:
> I'm very interested in helping out with writing the text for the new
> Debian installer (specifically, the graphical one). I guess I should
> start by saying why I'm interested in helping with the graphical
> installer specifically, and not just the installer in general.
> First of all, I think that the text in the current installer is good
> enough that it will be fine for the needs of the people using it, once
> a graphical installer exists. In other words, once we have a graphical
> installer, the newbies will all be using it, and the text in the console
> installer will mostly be read by more advanced users. Of course, by
> itself this doesn't mean that you can't make the console installer text
> just as "friendly", but now we get to the reason I think the graphical
> installer can be different)...
I believe the current plan is for the text installer to still be the
normal one. The graphical one is just a different way to present the
same questions. This means it will use the exact same text and
questions. I am not under the impression anyone is currently interested
in making the graphical installer ask any different questions or have
the text changed.
> Having a graphical installer opens up a lot of options for the way
> you can present the text. The way I always think of a good graphical
> installer would look is to have whatever you're working on in the
> window, and then a permanent scrolling box containing help text (on the
> right side, left side, maybe the bottom, whatever as long as it's
> consistent). This box would have a short description of the available
> options for the current screen...basically, something that a person who
> already pretty much knew what to do could look at for details. This is
> pretty much what we have now, for the console installer, and I think it
> works pretty well.
> What I think we can add for the graphical installer, that would be
> hard to integrate into the console installer, is an option for in-depth
> help that's displayed in a way that doesn't disrupt the flow of the
> installation (for example, in a separate window so it's clear that you
> can go back to the installation by simply closing the new window).
> This is one of my ideas: every time you ask a question, in addition
> to whatever the normal answers are, you have two extra choices:
>
> - I don't want to answer this question.
> - Explain the question to me so I can make a decision.
There is no reason there could be a button in both text and graphical
installer to select to pop up a window with detailed help on a question.
This is not something you require graphics for.
> I think new users would respond well to something like this, since
> it's in plain language. If they choose the first option, the installer
> will choose a generic, sensible (if un-optimized) default answer. If
> they choose the second option, the installer will present an in-depth
> help screen that will walk the user through the entire process of
> learning what the question means and giving an informed answer. This is
> what I'm interested in helping with; writing these in-depth help pages
> (and the normal in-line ones too, for that matter).
> Does any of this sound like a direction you guys want to go in?
The current installer can on many systems be setup almost entirely by
hitting enter on most systems. Most of the defaults are sensible except
for the few things that can't have sensible default (like partitioninig
the disk and picking a password).
> I'm not subscribed to the list, so if your MUA doesn't recognize/honor
> the Mail-Followup-To: header, feel free to CC me by hand (although I'll
> try to monitor the archives anyway).
Well maybe in the future the graphical installer will be made different
from the text installer, but for now I don't think that is likely to
happen. The main drive for a graphical installer I believe is support
for some languages that were very very hard to support on the
framebuffer text installer.
Len Sorensen
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