Bug#9085: bottom line status confusing
Wow, this bug is 6 years old...
M. Swift suggested replacing this status line:
available version of control info for adduser
...for clarity's sake, with one of these two:
available version control info for adduser (no "of")
control info for available version of adduser (added an "of" and
reordered.)
Some comments...
If, in 'dselect', I hilite 'adduser' (or any package) the bottom line of
the screen says:
description of adduser -- 52%, press d for more.
...then if I hit the 'i' key, it says:
installed control info for adduser -- 34%, press d for more.
...hit 'i' again, it says:
available version of control info for adduser -- 33%, press d
for more.
Putting all three together may show the ugliness better:
1 description of adduser -- 52%, press d for more.
2 installed control info for adduser -- 34%, press d for more.
3 available version of control info for adduser -- 33%, press d
for more.
Look how the word 'adduser' moves around. In line #1 it's the third
word, in line #2 it's the fifth, in line #3 it's the sixth. Same
information, but moving it around tires the user.
(Even the preposition changes needlessly. Line #1 has "OF adduser",
lines #2-3 have "FOR adduser". Is it "of" or "for"? -- pick one or the
other and be consistent.)
Look how the "%xx, press d for more." moves around too.
Suggestions:
Move the "%xx, press d for more." to one place and keep it there -- such
as the far right of the screen. Note however, that if the user pages
down to the bottom, it says:
description of adduser -- 100%, press u to go back.
Unfortunately the widths don't quite match...
1 press d for more.
2 press u to go back.
Therefore to keep those strings from jumping around the bottom right of
the screen, string #1 should be left-justified so it always matches
string #2. Or both could be combined into one prompt, such as:
press d or u for page up/down
Next there's the text itself, here it is again, without the page up/down
prompts:
1 description of adduser
2 installed control info for adduser
3 available version of control info for adduser
And here's what M. Swift suggested:
description of adduser
installed control info for adduser
available version control info for adduser
Get rid of the string 'adduser', because it's already on the screen
enough. First the user sees 'adduser' on the hi-lit package selection line:
*** Imp base adduser 3.50 3.50 Add and
remove users and
...second, 'adduser' is on the blue seperator line:
adduser installed ; install (was: install). Important
...and third 'adduser' is the first line of the 'info' box, which is
either of these two lines:
adduser - Add and remove users and groups
Package: adduser
That's three 'adduser's -- four is too many. I suggest:
1 Description
2 Control info of installed version
3 Control info of available version
Now in lines #2-3 the text won't jump around.
Furthermore the strings should be slightly indented, so they aren't
flush with the info box text. Example of how the bottom half of the
screen would look...
Before:
---------
adduser installed ; install (was: install). Important
adduser - Add and remove users and groups
This package includes the adduser and deluser commands for creating and
removing users.
o Adduser can create new users and groups and add existing users to
existing groups.
o Deluser can remove users and groups and remove users from a given
group.
description of adduser -- 52%, press d for more.
---------
After:
---------
adduser installed ; install (was: install). Important
adduser - Add and remove users and groups
This package includes the adduser and deluser commands for creating and
removing users.
o Adduser can create new users and groups and add existing users to
existing groups.
o Deluser can remove users and groups and remove users from a given
group.
Description 52%, press d or u for pageup/down
---------
M. Swift's second point was that when the installed and available
versions are the same, their control info should be the same too --
because, he says, the latter is superset of the former.
This is not strictly correct... some of the control info (e.g. "Status:
install ok installed") is not in the available info, and vice versa
(e.g. " MD5sum: 0aef8e730deadce4464d368972fd771b").
It might be better if those screens were less redundant though. Perhaps
when the installed and available versions where the same then the
description should only be on the first screen, and the available info
shouldn't show anything in the control info. That way the difference
would leap right out at the user, rather than requiring the user having
to wade through all that redundant info.
Examples of how the above changes would look:
Description:
---------
adduser - Add and remove users and groups
This package includes the adduser and deluser commands for creating and
removing users.
[stuff deleted]
---------
Installed info:
---------
Package: adduser
Status: install ok installed
Priority: important
Section: base
Installed-Size: 280
Maintainer: Roland Bauerschmidt <rb@debian.org>
Version: 3.50
Depends: perl-base (>= 5.6.0), passwd (>= 961025), debconf
Suggests: liblocale-gettext-perl, perl-modules
Conffiles:
/etc/deluser.conf bf73b4e76066381cd3caf80369ce1d0e
Description: Add and remove users and groups
---------
Available info:
---------
Architecture: all
Filename: pool/main/a/adduser/adduser_3.49_all.deb
Size: 77474
MD5sum: 0aef8e730deadce4464d368972fd771b
---------
Of course the above would be all wrong if the installed and available
versions were different, but that could stay the way it is now. (Alas,
I'm too tired to think of more changes.)
Fatigue aside, hope this helps...
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