Re: RPM (Was Re: Deity project schedule problems)
On Tue, 23 Sep 1997, Bruce Perens wrote:
> > strictly from a "user's" point of view, the first time i ran 'dselect'
> > i found it to be one of the most confusing and non-intuitive interfaces
> > i've ever encountered.
>
> There are certainly a lot of users or ex-users who feel exactly as you do.
> This is what bothers me, and why I bring this issue up frequently.
but what's it got to do with rpm vs dpkg?
it's a dselect issue, not a dpkg issue. replacing dpkg with rpm wouldn't
solve the problem.
dselect may not be the easiest program in the world to use(*), at least
dpkg has dselect - rpm doesn't even HAVE anything as good.
(*) IMO dselect's BIGGEST problem is entirely due to the success of
debian. dselect's user interface worked well enough back when we only
had 200-300 packages but is groaning under the strain of over 1300
packages. it just takes too long for a first-time user to choose which
packages s/he wants to install.
dselect's second biggest problem is again related to the number of
packages it has to manage - on a low memory machine (under 16mb, say) it
can be fairly slow.
the third problem, imo, is that dpkg/dselect should install packages in
dependancy order. even this isn't a show-stopper...if the user does
encounter a dependancy-order problem, they can just run Install again (and
again if necessary) until it runs through to completion without an error.
note that these are primarily cosmetic problems, not functional. we have
a system with good functionality, what we need now (and have needed for
far too long) is to overlay that functionality with a better user
interface...and that's partly what deity is about.
craig
--
craig sanders
networking consultant Available for casual or contract
temporary autonomous zone system administration tasks.
--
TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word "unsubscribe" to
debian-devel-request@lists.debian.org .
Trouble? e-mail to templin@bucknell.edu .
Reply to: