Re: [Synaptic-devel] Synaptic .5

[Michael Vogt]

On Thu, Jun 17, 2004 at 06:39:14PM +0200, Patrick Cornelißen wrote:
> | Right, this is a valid point. I added sorting capability for the
> | status of the packages to my development version of synaptic. This way
> | you can click on the "status" column and the list is sorted by "New,
> | Upgradable, Installed, Not installed". Is this sufficient for you to
> | browse the sections with not installed software? If so, I'll add it to
> | the next release (to be released pretty soon with small fixes and
> | translation updates).
> I think this should do the trick.
> The problem with the current way is that you have to look if the current
> package is installed if you browse through the repository.
> I do this from time to time to try some packages, so your sorting should
> solve this, because the not installed software is grouped and it's
> easier to see if you encounter a larger group of different icons ;-)

Good to hear. If you feel like testing the new code, feel free to do
so. It should be pretty stable (only minimal changes since 0.50). It's
available via subversion from
https://oops.kerneljanitors.org/repos/synaptic/trunk
 
> | Please help me to exactly understand what you are missing. What
> | information that used to be in the tabs are you looking for and in
> | what way did it help you?
> I used it for example to browse through the dependencies of broken
> packages. I just activated the dependencies tab (or the common tab) and
> browsed through the packages. So I got a pretty quick impression what's
> wrong.
> Now I have to click on each package and select the property menu item,
> ... - not very good for quick browsing.
> 
> I think it's the best for the usability, if you reintegrate the
> properties dialog in the description area with it's tabs.
> (As it was in the last .4x versions)
> 
> Or maybe you can make it configurable if the current way of just showing
> the description has massive advantages (speed maybe?) But I don't see
> the advantage for the user there.

I attached a patch that makes the properties window non-modal and that
adds searching in the packagelist by pressing a key (a small window in
the scrollbar area). The properties window will always display the
last selected package and updates the status according the action
performed. Is this what you miss? 

I post it as a patch here as I'm interessted in opinions :) What do
you think Sebastian and Gustavo, shall we go with this patch? It's
save as it does not keep a copy of the package pointer around. 
 
> | We don't want synaptic to be less usefull than it was before. We just
> | want to make it easier (and faster) :) So, please tell me more about
> | how you use synpatic and how we can make it as usefull to you as it
> | was before.
> Thanks. I hope I was verbose enough to express what I'm thinking of. I
> suppose you're german, so we can talk in german (off-list) if there are
> still problems. Sometimes I have a very experimental english ;-)

Yes, your right, my native language is german. Your english is pretty
good, don't worry. You are welcome to send me stuff in german
(off-list) if you feel it's easier for you :)

thanks!
 Michael

-- 
The first rule of holes is: when you find yourself in one, stop digging. - PJ
Linux is not The Answer. Yes is the answer. Linux is The Question. - Neo

synaptic-0.50-non-modal-properties.diff
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