Mail Archives: cygwin/2010/02/19/02:09:18
Hello, all.
This is my first post to the list. I hope my idea meets with some
consideration.
I know from recent experience that it is all too easy to update, and at
the same time install practically everything available, when one has 'in
one's hands' a downloaded copy of the latest setup.exe. I went looking
for mmv a few weeks back and wound up with all of my Cygwin base stuff
updated, plus Cygwin/X items I would never have installed if given the
choice. I find the term "Partial" -- selected by the "View" button top
right in the "Select Packages" window of the current setup utility --
abstruse and potentially misleading. A better approach might be to take
a page from Synaptic Package Manager in Linux and have a "Mark upgrades"
(for download and/or install) button instead. I grant that the
"Partial" button is described on
http://cygwin.com/cygwin-ug-net/setup-net.html#setup-packages , but all
the same, I hold there are better ways to give the user the same results.
Call me dense, but I wasn't even aware the "View" button was accompanied
by a sizable Tooltip until my last upgrade. Not that it matters: I tried
invoking it a second or two ago and it didn't appear.
While we're about it, why not give serious consideration to re-do'ing
the whole shebang? Synaptic provides a good model, as does the
"Add/Remove" utility -- I can never remember the installed name of that
app for the life of me -- from recent builds of GNOME, and let's not
forget Adept. Leaving out the aptitude-based repository functions of
those utilities, just the look-and-feel are more familiar to those of us
weaned on Windows Updater or Apple Software Update (I myself have a Mac
OS/ OS X background). I can see where the current "layout" of setup.exe
does borrow significantly from somewhere. I mean, there _is_ a Search,
and most packages (when chosen by category) are linked to their
dependencies simultaneously with the user clicking in those teensy
little checkboxes. Still, when mistakes like the one I described above
are not only possible but likely -- when one is keen on installing or
upgrading Cygwin, maybe for the second or third time, one seldom takes
the time to re-read instructions or tips (however critically-stressed)
on the website -- a redesign that takes such things into consideration
is well past due, in my opinion.
Thanks for giving this a read.
SJ Wright
--
The evolution of email: 1979 - A miracle 1989 - A useful tool 1999 -
Still cheaper than postage 2009 - A pain in the a**!
If you can read this, you're too close to the screen.
--
Problem reports: http://cygwin.com/problems.html
FAQ: http://cygwin.com/faq/
Documentation: http://cygwin.com/docs.html
Unsubscribe info: http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple
- Raw text -