Re: no wonder...
On Sat, Apr 08, 2000 at 08:48:18AM +0700, Oki DZ wrote:
> On Fri, 7 Apr 2000, Richard Taylor wrote:
> > My mileage varies. I find that the program simplifies what can be a
> > vastly more difficult process... that of tracking dependencies, versions,
> > file locations, etc, etc... It does it
> > fairly well and it does it accurately.
Which doesn't explain why there is a project to create a better top-level
package management tool called "apt"? :)
> I think the problem in dselect that it doesn't show the dependency tree.
> The listing of the packages is useful, of course, but it's just a list.
Agreed; it's a plain list, which can be viewed in various ways. What I
think would be better would be the ability to collapse parts of the list
that you're not viewing, like a directory tree.
Then you come to the actual conflict resolution part. Possibly it'd be
great if it could detect these conflicts in real-time (I guess this might
not be trivial or speedy to implement), and prompt you.
For example, you select a package and it pops up saying "This package also
requires: foo bar baz wibble snafu... do you wish to install them as well or
cancel installation of xyz?" This lets you select/cancel the whole operation
(and it is one operation really, after all.. people just say "grr.. need
that as well.. alright" so it's not really an independent choice anyway.)
For conflicts, "This package conflicts with the following: foo baz. Do you
wish to proceed (removing those packages), or cancel this install? [y/n]"
Recommendations and suggestions are a little more difficult (since it's
something people are more likely to pick and choose over) but still quite
doable and could be simpler IMO.
Even if we don't do it real time, we could let people see the conflict
list better (it's not very obvious what is happening there), by grouping
what packages are required by existing choices etc. A number of times I've
been unsure of exactly what requires what and how I should resolve it, and
just ended up cancelling the lot and starting from scratch due to just one
change I'm confused about.
Just to forestall the "if you want it write it yourself" and "We're
volunteers, don't complain" flames: I appreciate it all, I just think it can
be improved too :) If I understood all Debian's package flags better, I
might have a crack at it myself some time.
--
loki
eloki@dingoblue.net.au
Dare I disturb the universe? You bet I do! :)
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