[yast-devel] New ncurses package selector
Hi yast hackers let me share some preliminary results of my hackweek project with you. I've decided to improve the layout of ncurses package selector in order to give it a better structure and make it more user friendly. Some featured changes: * New menus. Though I did no extensive card-sorting study, I tried to group menu items together according to their common functionality. For example, all dependency related actions (check deps now, verify system etc.) are now in submenu of its own: http://users.suse.cz/~kmachalkova/pkger-deps.png * More visible filters Package filters (patterns, RPM groups, langs, repositories, searching) are no longer hidden in a popup menu, but have a panel of its own: http://users.suse.cz/~kmachalkova/pkger-main.png The upper left pane is the filter itself, the lower left one is its description (well, not yet, "Some text here" is a placeholder) * Reorganized package table The order of columns in pkg table has changed, so the most important entries (status, pkg name and its summary) are visible at all times, while those that users do not need to see so often (version, pkg size) shifted to the right and user can scroll the table to see them. In the future (thanks, Lukas for the idea) I'd like to make this configurable and let user choose which table columns (s)he wants to see. * Wizard-like bottom line With left-most help http://users.suse.cz/~kmachalkova/pkger-help.png and Cancel/OK aligned to the right. I'm developing the stuff in my /tmp/bubli/ncurses-pkg svn branch, but don't try it at home ;-) because it's pretty dumb and does in fact nothing so far. It only looks 'nice' (or at least, hopefully) better than before. The original NCPackageSelector super-class has ~4000 lines of code, so I'm trying to break it into little pieces (subclasses) and moving the things around esp. event handling is quite a big deal I just wanted to give you the idea, how it looks like and I'm open to your comments and suggestions. frozenB. -- \\\\\ Katarina Machalkova \\\\\\\__o YaST developer __\\\\\\\'/_ & hedgehog painter
Hey, That sounds great, but what about putting those screenshots at wiki.opensuse.org or other machine visible to the outside? :) Cheers, Ricardo -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: yast-devel+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: yast-devel+help@opensuse.org
That sounds great, but what about putting those screenshots at wiki.opensuse.org or other machine visible to the outside? :)
Sure, there you go: http://en.opensuse.org/Image:Pkger-main.png http://en.opensuse.org/Image:Pkger-deps.png http://en.opensuse.org/Image:Pkger-view.png http://en.opensuse.org/Image:Pkger-extras.png http://en.opensuse.org/Image:Pkger-help.png B. -- \\\\\ Katarina Machalkova \\\\\\\__o YaST developer __\\\\\\\'/_ & hedgehog painter
Katarina Machalkova wrote:
Sure, there you go:
Thanks! In general: it looks very clear and quite simple to use to me! I have only some small questions/suggestions: * What is the meaning of the left text field (which contains: "Some text here"" in the mock up)? * What about moving actions into the top menu row? Then there would be just one navigation/action area. * Is it really necessary to display the selected package group again? * What about moving the filter in the left box above the box? This could save one box line? Cu, Martin -- Martin Schmidkunz User Experience Specialist martin.schmidkunz@novell.com +49 (0) 911 740 53-346 ----------------------------------------------------------------- SUSE LINUX Products GmbH, GF: Markus Rex, HRB 16746 (AG Nürnberg) ----------------------------------------------------------------- Novell, Inc. SUSE® Linux Enterprise 10 Your Linux is ready http://www.novell.com/linux -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: yast-devel+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: yast-devel+help@opensuse.org
Ahoj!
I have only some small questions/suggestions:
* What is the meaning of the left text field (which contains: "Some text here"" in the mock up)?
That is an area where pattern description should be. For example: 'YaST development' - 'tools and libraries for developing YaST modules ... blah blah'. It does not work yet Currently pattern descriptions are not visible anywhere in the installed system, you can view it only during installation in software proposal (before you click on 'Details ...' view). Moreover, it is Qt UI specific as this feature was not requested for ncurses.
* What about moving actions into the top menu row? Then there would be just one navigation/action area.
It is there on purpose, because of easier navigation. Reason: if you want to change status of selected package and you don't remember keyboard shortcuts (+,-, Space and friends), you need to press Shift-Tab three or more times to get to the correct menu item. Now all you need is single press of Tab key.
* Is it really necessary to display the selected package group again?
Hm, you mean 'Package: ...' label under package table? No, it won't stay there, it will be probably replaced with currently selected package name (possibly with its version), it just does not work so far ;-)
* What about moving the filter in the left box above the box? This could save one box line?
Uh, I don't really get your point here, sorry. B. -- \\\\\ Katarina Machalkova \\\\\\\__o YaST developer __\\\\\\\'/_ & hedgehog painter
Ahoj Bubli!
* What is the meaning of the left text field (which contains: "Some text here"" in the mock up)? That is an area where pattern description should be. For example: 'YaST development' - 'tools and libraries for developing YaST modules ... blah blah'.
Cool idea!
* What about moving actions into the top menu row? Then there would be just one navigation/action area.
It is there on purpose, because of easier navigation. Reason: if you want to change status of selected package and you don't remember keyboard shortcuts (+,-, Space and friends), you need to press Shift-Tab three or more times to get to the correct menu item. Now all you need is single press of Tab key.
OK, that makes sense to me. But I found it quite hard to locate the action combo box. What about putting it under the package description? This would be consistent with the YaST modules, where you have an overview, a description and then the add/edit/delete buttons (e.g. like in the "Software Repositories" module)
* Is it really necessary to display the selected package group again?
Hm, you mean 'Package: ...' label under package table? No, it won't stay there, it will be probably replaced with currently selected package name (possibly with its version), it just does not work so far ;-)
:-)
* What about moving the filter in the left box above the box? This could save one box line? Uh, I don't really get your point here, sorry.
No problem. I made a quick mock up. As I have some problems uploading files to the wiki, I attached it to this email. But be aware: no card sort study was done, which proves that my suggestions are the last word :-) If you want to, I can conduct one of course :-) Cu, Martin -- Martin Schmidkunz User Experience Specialist martin.schmidkunz@novell.com +49 (0) 911 740 53-346 ----------------------------------------------------------------- SUSE LINUX Products GmbH, GF: Markus Rex, HRB 16746 (AG Nürnberg) ----------------------------------------------------------------- Novell, Inc. SUSE® Linux Enterprise 10 Your Linux is ready http://www.novell.com/linux
Martin Schmidkunz napsal(a):
* What about moving actions into the top menu row? Then there would be just one navigation/action area. It is there on purpose, because of easier navigation. Reason: if you want to change status of selected package and you don't remember keyboard shortcuts (+,-, Space and friends), you need to press Shift-Tab three or more times to get to the correct menu item. Now all you need is single press of Tab key.
OK, that makes sense to me. But I found it quite hard to locate the action combo box. What about putting it under the package description? This would be consistent with the YaST modules, where you have an overview, a description and then the add/edit/delete buttons (e.g. like in the "Software Repositories" module)
Well, the way it is done now saves some space. In ncurses there is "always less" space then you need :) Additionally, the "Action" is now close to the package name which suggests that it might have something in common with the current package ;) which is correct. Your mockup shows how "Actions" combo-box feels alone and occupies one more line (You've forgotten "Package: XYZ" line). Lukas
Lukas Ocilka wrote:
Martin Schmidkunz napsal(a): Well, the way it is done now saves some space. In ncurses there is "always less" space then you need :)
Mhm. But it requires the same space. It is just the location of the button which changed.
Additionally, the "Action" is now close to the package name which suggests that it might have something in common with the current package ;) which is correct.
I remember that there was a similar discussion about the details box in other YaST modules :-) BTW Mac OS > 10.4 does it similarly: you have a list of software, a detailled description and then a "Cancel" and "Install" button at the bottom.
Your mockup shows how "Actions" combo-box feels alone and occupies one more line (You've forgotten "Package: XYZ" line).
This was done on purpose, because I had the idea to move version and other things into the text field under the package list. I think, that in the end we need to see the module with some live data. Then it might be much easier to see whether the actions button is somewhere lost or not. But from the current situation I would still move it to the bottom left. Consistency with other modules and.. oh, you know the rest :-) Cu, Martin -- Martin Schmidkunz User Experience Specialist martin.schmidkunz@novell.com +49 (0) 911 740 53-346 ----------------------------------------------------------------- SUSE LINUX Products GmbH, GF: Markus Rex, HRB 16746 (AG Nürnberg) ----------------------------------------------------------------- Novell, Inc. SUSE® Linux Enterprise 10 Your Linux is ready http://www.novell.com/linux -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: yast-devel+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: yast-devel+help@opensuse.org
Wow, it looks much better :-) -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: yast-devel+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: yast-devel+help@opensuse.org
participants (5)
-
Duncan Mac-Vicar Prett -
Katarina Machalkova -
Lukas Ocilka -
Martin Schmidkunz -
Ricardo Cruz