"Software Sources" design (Re: An update repository for a custom distro?)

Sat Jan 6 13:22:47 UTC 2007

Am Mittwoch, den 03.01.2007, 13:22 +1300 schrieb Matthew Paul Thomas:

Hi Matthew!

> General feedback:
> 
> 1.  It is a shame that this window needs a "System" > "Administration"
>      menu item of its own. (This seems to be a symptom of Synaptic,
>      Add/Remove Applications, and Update Manager being three separate
>      programs, which is bizarre and confusing.)

It is quite hard to respond without having a rationale as a basis. All
three named applications have got a special purpose and they fulfill it
quite well. Synaptic aims at the advanced user who wants complete
control of the packages installed. But gnome-app-install wants to
abstract the whole under laying package handling and wants to provide an
easy to use and simple way of installing graphical applications.

Both update-manager and gnome-app-install are both context driven. So
you will find Add/remove applications in the applications menu and will
normally only access update-manager when there are updates available.

I haven't yet seen a concept that could satisfy all user groups.

Furthermore gnome-app-install does not care about the sources.list in
the user interface. So I think that the recent addition of the
preferences button to the g-a-i window was an error.

Perhaps you are right and we should remove s-p from the menu. Instead we
could add a preferences button to update-manager that would only show
the updates tab or switch to the updates tab by default. And show the
full dialog only in Synaptic.

> 2.  The authentication alert refers to "software-properties", but the
>      window is called "Software Sources". These should be reconciled.

This is an error. Gksu should use the desktop file of
software-properties and show "Software Sources" instead of the path.
Fixed.

> 3.  In Synaptic, the item that opens this window should be labelled
>      "Software Sources...", not "Repositories".

I missed the string freeze deadline for edgy providing a patch. But it
is good that you remember me :)

> 4.  The window gives no indication of what it's actually for. I see many
>      checkboxes, but their labels are almost all noun phrases, and there
>      is no verb phrase introducing them.

Mainly the dialog allows you to choose where to install software from.

I changed the headings:

Internet -> Download from the Internet
CD-ROM/DVD -> Install from CD-ROM/DVD

> 5.  The organization of tabs is awkward. Three of the five appear to be
>      for listing sources of software, and two of the five aren't. And the
>      first is labelled "Ubuntu 6.10", which (probably wrongly) suggests
>      that the other four are about some other system. I'll be more able
>      to make a suggestion about improving this once #4 is fixed.

The forth one is also related to software sources since it is about
authentication of software origins. The fifth one was not there in the
original design, see later.

We have to make a difference between Ubuntu software and third party
software. That is why the first one is named by the distribution.

> 6.  Some of the checkboxes are in indeterminate [-] state, but no reason
>      for this is provided. Further, clicking such a checkbox three times
>      should return it to the indeterminate state (-> checked -> unchecked
>      -> indeterminate) , but it doesn't. (The only way to do this seems
>      to be clicking "Revert", which presumably forgets all the other
>      changes I wanted to make too.)

The indeterminate state is used if we cannot find a graphical way to
represent the sources.list layout. This is mostly the case if the user
did some modifications in the sources.list file. 

I think that it would be too hard to implement a way to return to the
inconsistent state for each comp/repository.

The edgy version has got two bugs that set the inconsistent state
wrongly. I committed patches.

> 7.  The "Help" button doesn't seem to give any help on this window at
>      all. It displays help for Update Manager instead.

The help is quite outdated and I am thinking about hiding the button at
all. S-p is currently still bundled with update-manager. We are going to
split the source tree. But we still have to wait for some new build
dependencies.

> In the "Ubuntu 6.10" tab:
> 
> 8.  "Community-maintained" and "Canonical-supported" are short adjective
>      phrases, which should therefore use dashes.

That is the problem with non native speakers :) I changed this.

> 9.  The "Download from:" menu contains two items: "Main server" and
>      "Server for Zimbabwe". I don't even live in Africa, let alone
>      Zimbabwe, so I don't know why the second option is there nor how to
>      fix it.

The second mirror is created from your locale settings. It is meant as
an easy way to choose the mirror for your country. Could it be that your
locale is set to en_ZW instead of en_NZ? 

I added some new functions recently: When you choose "Other..." in the
download from combobox, a small dialog will be shown that holds a tree
of the available mirrors sorted by country. It automatically scrolls to
and expands the mirrors of your country.

I disabled the addition of custom mirrors for the next release.
Furthermore I will add a "Find Best Server" button. But the test is
currently to slow - so it is disabled temporarily too.

> 10. "CDROM" should be "CD-ROM".
> 
> 11. The "CDROM/DVD" section is disabled with no explanation. Maybe the
>      box could, when disabled, contain a short sentence describing what
>      to do to make it enabled.

It is disabled if there are no CD-ROM available. But to be honest I am
not very happy about the way we deal with CD-ROMs currently in the user
interface. Changed the wording.

> In the "Internet Updates" tab:
> 
> 12. There is no explanation of the difference between "Important" and
>      "Recommended" updates. Why is it possible, for example, to have the
>      former turned off and the latter turned on?

This is a problem with the structure of the Ubuntu archive:

edgy-security (important)
edgy-updates (recommended)
edgy-proposed 
edgy-backports

Any idea how describe them differently?

> 13. There is no explanation of what "Proposed updates" and "Backported
>      updates" mean.

Yes, perhaps it is a good idea to add a tooltip. I will add the
corresponding changes in the under laying infrastructure soon.

> 14. The final three checkboxes contradict each other in two ways.
> 
>      -   If I uncheck "Check for updates automatically", and check
>          "Download updates automatically, but do not install them",
>          updates apparently both will and won't be downloaded. This can
>          be fixed by disabling the final two checkboxes when "Check for
>          updates automatically" is turned off.

Indeed this is an error.

>      -   If I check both "Download updates automatically, but do not
>          install them" and "Install security updates without
>          confirmation", security updates apparently both will and won't
>          be installed automatically. This can be fixed by replacing the
>          checkboxes with an "Install them automatically:" menu containing
>          three options: "Never", "Security updates only", and "Always".

The radio buttons are a good idea. I will add them to my long term
branch :) Since I maintain a stable branch for the forthcoming release
of the source code separation (update-manager will break up into
python-aptsources, update-manager and software-properties).

> In the "Third Party" tab:
> 
> 15. "Third Party" is an adjective phrase, and there is no further
>      explanation of what this list is for. Tell me what it's for, and
>      I'll turn it into a label or a caption. :-)

This tab holds third party software sources - from so called independent
software vendors (ISV). In this tab you will find repositories that are
not related to the Ubuntu project, e.g. the repositories of Penguin
Liberation Front or wine. Actually in German it is a noun:
"Drittanbieter". Never trust a dictionary :)

> 16. "Add" should be "Add...", and "Edit" should be "Edit...".

That is right. I fixed this.

> 17. "Cdrom" should be "CD-ROM".

Fixed.

> 18. The "Add..." and "Add CD-ROM..." buttons should not use the same
>      icon. Perhaps the latter could use a CD icon.

Fixed.

> In the "Authentication" tab:
> 
> 19. There is no explanation of what this list is for.

I added a tooltip:

"Keys are used to authenticate the correct source of software and so
protect your computer from malicious software"

> 20. "Import Key File" should be "Import Key File...".

Fixed.

> In the "Statistics" tab:
> 
> 21. Using an entire tab just for a single checkbox is excessive. How
>      this should be solved depends on #5 above.

This tab was added by Canonical :) It was not part of my original
design.

> 22. The description shouldn't be above the checkbox and in italics. It
>      should be under the checkbox, and indented the same amount as the
>      label.

I am also no fan of in user interface documentation. If we find a better
place and a shorter description we could use a tooltip instead.

> 23. "To improve the user experience of Ubuntu"? Really? Has that ever
>      happened? If so, be more specific. If not, remove the checkbox.

For sure! The data is used to calculate the popularity ranking in
gnome-app-install.

> 24. The description needs shortening and rewording. For example, "Take
>      part in the popularity contest" suggests, if you don't read the full
>      description (and few will), that it is a contest of people rather
>      than software. And "on a weekly basis" can be shortened to "weekly".

The wording was provided by Canonical.

Thanks a lot for your detailed improvements!

Here is a screenshot:

http://files.glatzor.de/current-state.jpg

Cheers,

Sebastian