Pirut: Edit -> Repositories mock-up.

Debarshi 'Rishi' Ray debarshi.ray at gmail.com
Tue Jul 10 10:40:50 UTC 2007


> Except that the "mockup" is inspired by an existing UI (Synaptic) which has
> been used successfully for years, and which IMHO is one of the best (if not the
> best) package management UIs out there.

I like Synaptic a lot too, but I also agree with some of Jeremy's
suggestions. eg., replacing "channels" with "repositories", etc..

> Why artificially restrict the target user base for Pirut this way? Wouldn't it
> be better if Pirut was useful for everyone? Right now it really isn't, and
> Synaptic, Yumex or smart --gui are much better options for experienced users.

Ack. Pirut is also often hard for beginners or intermediate users.
There are people who know some of the intricate configuration details,
but do not want to use 'vi' or 'emacs' to do the stuff. I feel that
the number of such users is much more than the abolute newbies or
super geeks.

> Another method of dealing with the different requirements of new and
> experienced users is to do what Firefox does: present a basic UI by default,
> but make it extensible by dozens of extensions.

Ack. Use reasonable defaults and provide means to alter them, taking
enough care not too clutter the GUI and confuse the end-user (need not
be an absolute newbie). eg., the advanced configuration can be hidden
in a drop-down box or separate tab, etc..

> This is working well for KDE, Synaptic and many other software packages.

Well KDE is often bashed for too much configurability, but Synaptic is
used by an enormous number of Ubuntu users on a GNOME desktop
including relative newcomers.

/me thanks everyone for their feedback

Cheers,
Debarshi
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