On Sunday 25 January 2009 02:57:35 Clayton wrote:
[...] There are quite a few improvements I'd like to see.... - remember the column widths when I resize them - do not auto-close after installing some software (or make it configurable). I never add all the software I want in one go - add a view that shows ONLY the packages that can/need to be updated - add an easy to find and clear installation summary view
I completely agree. Borrowing from a piece of software used for doing live configuration changes for an industrial video matrix switcher, I think it would also be good if Yast2 was changed to use an sql backend (e.g. sqlite or mysql-e). Now, before anyone jumps, hear me out. I'm not suggesting that the whole package management system be converted to sql, just the software management application. How would this work? On startup Yast2 Software Management would read the respository data and insert it into an (appropriately optimised) sql database. Queries/views would then be constructed as sql queries (invisible to the user, unless one wanted to do a user-defined view) which would make creating new views/queries very simple e.g. "select all from * where installed_version <> available version and installed version is not null" should show only installed packages that have upgrades (or downgrades) available. On shutdown the (modified) data from the sql database would be rewritten back to the repository cache files. If the right database engine is used and the database is appropriately designed I think there would be minimal impact on performance (in fact it may even be slightly improved). Database triggers could also be used to keep the repository cache files up-to- date in the background or to update other views that are (currently hidden) in other tabs.
I think tabs are a great idea... have a tab with a constantly updated installation summary (for example). I can see tabs being more user friendly... as long as the concerns raised in the blog entry are thought about.. like tab clutter... ability to close tabs... ability to opne specific tabs.. remember which tabs are preferred so that next time it's opened, the same tabs are shown and so on.
C.
Agreed. It would all help to make the system even more usable. -- =================================================== Rodney Baker VK5ZTV rodney.baker@iinet.net.au ===================================================