Message-ID: <4B7E390F.3030500@charter.net>
Date: Fri, 19 Feb 2010 02:09:03 -0500
From: SJ Wright <sjwright68 AT charter DOT net>
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Subject: Changing the "nature" of setup.exe
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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
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