Re: dpkg - the letter prefixes.. what do they mean
On Sat, Mar 02, 2002 at 08:02:39PM -0500, Joey Hess wrote:
> dman wrote:
> > Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
> > | Status=Not/Installed/Config-files/Unpacked/Failed-config/Half-installed
> > |/ Err?=(none)/Hold/Reinst-required/X=both-problems (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
> > ||/ Name Version Description
> > +++-==============-==============-============================================
> > ii vim 6.0.226-1 Vi IMproved - enhanced vi editor
>
> I wonder if this minor change would make the ascii art vaguely more
> understandable:
Yes, with emphasis on *vaguely*. See below.
>
> Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
> | Status=Not/Installed/Config-files/Unpacked/Failed-config/Half-installed
> |/ Err?=(none)/Hold/Reinst-required/X=both-problems (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
> ||/ Name Version Description
> vvv-==============-==============-============================================
> ii vim 6.0.226-1 Vi IMproved - enhanced vi editor
>
> Here is another version:
>
> Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
> |Status=Not/Installed/Config-files/Unpacked/Failed-config/Half-installed
> ||Prob?=Hold/Reinst-required/X=both-problems (Status,Prob: uppercase=bad)
> ||| Name Version Description
> vvv-==============-==============-============================================
> ii vim 6.0.226-1 Vi IMproved - enhanced vi editor
>
> I prefer this last one. Comments?
Disagree. I vote for the first fix. The slight spacing and offset
caused by using the slash as opposed to the pipe characters are more
likely to draw the viewer's eye to the arrows, and convey to him that
all that ascii mess is actually pointing to the status columns. The
second version just looks a bit more like hacker gibberish to novice
eyes. Take it from a Debian novice who had to scratch his head for
quite a while to decode this screen for the first time not so long ago.
Note that I don't think the improvement is great. This is likely to
be a forbiddingly confusing screen to the novice even with the
improvement you have suggested. But any improvement is welcome.
The dselect man page says it all (at least in potato it does):
Begin quote ----------
BUGS
The dselect package selection interface is confusing or
even alarming to a new user.
End quote ------------
Note also that when the clueless novice *has* finally decoded the
screen, it's a piece of cake. "Intuitive" is generally just a
synonym for "what is familiar to me".
Cordially,
Mark S. Reglewski
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