RE: Some things GNOME really needs

["Fox, Kevin M" <KMFox mail bhi-erc com>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Alan Shutko [mailto:ats@acm.org]
> Sent: Thursday, June 24, 1999 12:42 PM
> To: gnome-list@gnome.org
> Subject: Re: Some things GNOME really needs
> 
> 
> "Fox, Kevin M" <KMFox@mail.bhi-erc.com> writes:
> 
> > Well, my main point was: since rpm does automatic installs, 
> what do we need
> > an install wizard for?
> 
> RPMs don't really handle things like allowing a user to select which
> parts of an app to install.  RPMs are all or nothing, and while you
> could break your app into separate RPMs per component, seeing a
> directory with 30 RPMs and expecting the user to know which to
> install, without a nice graphical thingy, is often too much to
> expect.  

Use the webfind feature of gnorpm... it does everything for you... You click
ok, Yes I want to download, and install... simple. :)
Dependancies are handled automaticly by gnorpm.

> 
> Also, RPMs can't prompt users things like "Which runlevels would you
> like this to run in?"  or initial setup questions, but have to rely on
> the defaults to work, or for the user to find things afterwards.
> That's pretty easy, since rpm allows you to see where the config files
> are, and can list the docs, but that's not what users from Windows
> expect.

Use a runlevel editor for that. Besides, if it is a program that needs
runlevel setup, it needs to be done as root. And being a root situation, I
would not trust it to a normal user.

Any other configureation should be ether unnessisary, or the program needs
to be changed. For example. Older windows programs would check for their
ini's. If they didnt exist, they would generate them. In newer windows
programs, they were broken... If the registry settings arn't there, the
program just dies instead of putting defaults in. Point being, the rpm
should install a default setup, and the user can than ether edit a config
file, or run the program and change the settings via a menu or something. If
the program isnt coded to work like this, then the program is designed
poorly...

An install wizard is completely unnessisary. Gnorpm and alittle good
programming on the end programer side fixes the problem. I have never seen a
unix program yet that couldn't be packed into an rpm...

One of the main conserns is downloading a bunch of gnome rpms and haveing a
user install them. That is too ugly for the target "normal user" audience.
The solution is, let the distribution handle the details. For example,
redhat 6. You plop in the cd, hit install, and you have gnome. If you want
to update it, open up gnorpm, hit the webfind button, and update gnome... a
wizard just dumbs down the end users, makes more work for the coders, and
removes the ability to auto install/update a package.

> 
> -- 
> Alan Shutko <ats@acm.org> - Looking for a job in Long Island!
> Check http://rescomp.wustl.edu/~ats/ for a resume.
> IBM: Immovable Brash Monolith
> 
> 
> -- 
>         FAQ: Frequently-Asked Questions at 
> http://www.gnome.org/gnomefaq
>          To unsubscribe: mail 
> gnome-list-request@gnome.org with 
>                        "unsubscribe" as the Subject.
>