OneConf and Software Center

[Matthew Paul Thomas]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Hi Didier

Didier Roche wrote on 22/04/10 09:33:
>
> Le mercredi 21 avril 2010 à 21:23 -0400, Jason J. Herne a écrit :
>...
>> Thanks for working with me to develop a good overview for OneConf
>> (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/OneConf) and for considering my design ideas.
>...
>> I've been thinking about your suggested method of using Software
>> Center to obtain a list of user installed packages (minus dependencies
>> & Ubuntu base packages).  I have taken a look at the list of installed
>> applications as reported by S-C and I do not believe it works. I'm not
>> sure how software center decides which packages go into this list, but
>> it seems to contain both base packages as well as dependencies of
>> installed packages.
>>
>> See http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=1t7wjd&s=5
>> This shows some base packages listed in Software Center, like Archive
>> manager and Calculator.
>
> This one is not important to me and seems even logical, as there are
> still "applications", you maybe want to remove the Calculator from an
> installed desktop (no offense robert_ancell ;)). So, keeping the
> default list somewhere is something not directly related.
>
>> See http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=148jay1&s=5
>> This was taken right after command 'sudo apt-get install dia'.
>> Software Center is showing the library files and common files for Dia.
>
> hum, this one is more annoying. Thanks for looking at that.

This is a combination of three bugs in Ubuntu Software Center.

First, the "Installed Software" section is supposed to be a categorized
list of all packages installed on the system. Currently, though, it is
an uncategorized list of only the applications installed on the system.
<http://launchpad.net/bugs/437072>

Second, a package (e.g. dia-gnome) that provides an application (e.g.
Dia diagram editor) should not show up separately from that application.
This works in most listings, but it fails in "Installed Software" search
results. <http://launchpad.net/bugs/537735>

And third, in any listing that includes packages that do not provide an
application (e.g. dia-libs, dia-common), those packages are supposed to
be hidden by default inside a "NN other technical items" disclosure
panel. Currently they're just shown by default.
<https://wiki.ubuntu.com/SoftwareCenter#software-list-view-disclosure>

If anyone would like to fix any of these things, I'd greatly appreciate
it. :-)

>> Do you know how Software Center decides which packages go into this
>> list? I've looked at the source code (briefly) but I did not find
>> much.  I'm sure a more thorough investigation would turn up more
>> information but I'm not sure if it is worth the time since the list
>> does not seem to be filtered how we want it to be.
>...

Why would you ask USC for this list? Why not ask apt or aptdaemon
directly, something like "Give me a list of all installed packages that
aren't dependencies of ubuntu-desktop".

As for the interface for OneConf in general, this seems like it should
be part of a standalone Migration Assistant for transferring your stuff
to/from other computers (programs and files to/from Ubuntu, and files
only to/from other OSes). The migration step in the Ubuntu installer
would be an embedded subset of this overall feature.

It might also make sense for recording/syncing the set of installed
packages to be accessible from Ubuntu Software Center, but *maybe* only
as a menu item that launches the Migration Assistant. What do you think?
Is there any other reason you'd want to record that kind of list?

- -- 
Matthew Paul Thomas
http://mpt.net.nz/
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.10 (GNU/Linux)
Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org/

iEYEARECAAYFAkwQrGUACgkQ6PUxNfU6ecobgwCfaty07Rho5FgRjjmHX4IUONY5
MrwAoKaCB8vHKVUNigOADuiTKKOmHWCG
=oLrd
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----