small dselect enhancements requests

[amos@dsi.co.il (Amos Shapira)]

Hello,

Hope the following points are proper in this forum, please correct me
if not:

1. dselect seems to not handle changing number of lines.  It handles
   width changes allright, but not height changes.

2. it would be nice to be able to see more info from the "available" file
   when selecting a package.  It would be especially usefull to see:

   *  The install size of the package (maybe with relation to the
      currently available disk space).

   *  When a package is installed or its .deb file is available -
      provide an option to list its files and their sizes, maybe the
      distribution over the local filesystems (i.e. how much disk
      space the package takes on  /, /usr, /var etc).   Take a look at
      SGI's "inst" and the software manager to see what I mean.

   *  Packages it depends on, and packages which depend on IT (for
      cases you want to slim down your disk, and can't remember why
      you have this package installed).  Maybe also with an indication
      of which of these packages is installed.

   *  date of last build (mostly for curiosity, but is there any reason
      NOT to provide this in the .deb file?)

As for the FTP method (practically the only way I upgrade my machine
since 1.4.0.7 came out)

   *  Make it show progress of downloads.
   *  IMPORTANT: If the ftp failed with "host/net unreachable" then
      wait for a while and try to restart the connection.  It happened
      to me many times that the mirror site went south for a few
      minutes (thunderstorms?) while I left the machine open
      over-night to download major upgrades (and it wasn't my modem's
      fault, it re-dials on disconnects anyway).

I'm aware of the new "dftp" package, I'm considering it right now, but
I still think thatthe points above worth considering.

Also are there any thought of an X interface?  It popped-up in my mind
while writing this that a Java interface with secure connections could
be nice (just imagine - run Netscape at home and maintain the Debian
machines of my ISP partnership...:-).

Cheers,

--Amos

--Amos Shapira                    | "Of course Australia was marked for
133 Shlomo Ben-Yosef st.          |  glory, for its people had been chosen
Jerusalem 93 805                  |  by the finest judges in England."
ISRAEL            amos@dsi.co.il  |                     -- Anonymous