Re: [Synaptic-devel] filter and buttons in the new user interface

[Sebastian Heinlein]

Am Mi, den 17.03.2004 schrieb Gustavo Niemeyer um 20:16:
> > > There are three different ways to select a package for installation:
> > > 
> > > - Menu
> > > - Context menu
> > > - Click on icon
> > 
> > I was talking about 'visible' methods. The question is, what does a not
> 
> Oh, so all the three methods are invisible?

They are visible to you, since you have written most of them :)

But try to think of a first time user. Do you see how to modify a
package if you start synaptic the first time?

> > very skilled user if he or she doesn't know how to make use of context
> > menus and doesn't see the 'package' menu? I think that we should provide
> > a method that is well visible at the startup of the application.
> 
> If the user don't know how to use context menus and doesn't see the
> package menu he may still click on the status icon.

I am in doubt if the status icon has such a high attraction. But the
next release will illuminate this issue. So I am willing to talk about
this later or not if it is not an issue.

> > > [...]
> > > > Another point is the filter combo box. Michael and me already discussed
> > > > about its use. And Michael came up with the idea to remove it and move
> > > > the filters to the new left browser as its own group in addition to
> > > > "section", "alphabet", "status" and "keyword" (tag).
> > > 
> > > How do I get the installed packages in the 'Base' section?
> > 
> > Select "Section"|"Base" in the browser and click on the status column
> > header to sort the list by status.
> 
> Now I have 5000 sorted packages. Where are the installed packages?

I don't think that there is any distribution which puts 5000 packages
into one section. I am on Debian, that is perhaps the biggest one and it
"only" contains 13000 packages at all. There are 139 packages in my base
section. If you would sort them by status, the installed packages
would/could be at top of the list.

But the question is what do you want to do with the list of installed
packages of the base section? If you want to check the status of a
special package or a group of them it would be much easier to select the
base section and enter a part of the package name or a common keyword
into the search field. The list would be instantly reduced to the
matching packages.

If there are 5000 packages in your section, then perhaps 4000 are
installed. And it is still very hard to quickly find a package in such a
huge list. The search is way faster than scrolling.

Regards,

Sebastian