what do you want to see in future apt versions ?

[Ralf Mardorf]

On Sun, 7 Jun 2020 13:48:56 -0700, rikona wrote:
>I like using 'version' to distinguish old and new - the word even the
>experts used to clarify. Is there a better word that NON-EXPERTS would
>be more likely to clearly understand?

Who of the "non-experts" need to use command line? I suspect only
Braille display users. For what reason can unskilled users who are not
visually impaired not use Ubuntu's automated GUIs?

Visually impaired Braille display users should know a few command line
basics. Users who aren't visually impaired need know how to use
GUIs, mouse clicks, right mouse clicks, menu bars or burger menus...

[weremouse at moonstudio ~]$ apropos upgrade
bogoupgrade (1)      - upgrades bogofilter database to current version
bogoupgrade-bdb (1)  - upgrades bogofilter database to current version
do-release-upgrade (8) - upgrade operating system to latest release
gettextize (1)       - install or upgrade gettext infrastructure
gtkdocize (1)        - install or upgrade gtk-doc infrastructure
uupdate (1)          - upgrade a source code package from an upstream revision
[weremouse at moonstudio ~]$ man do-release-upgrade | grep description -iA2
DESCRIPTION
       Upgrade  the  operating  system  to  the  latest release from the command-line.  This is the preferred command if the machine has no graphic environment or if the machine is to be
       upgraded over a remote connection.

You could run 'apropos update', 'apropos version' and 'apropos release'
to see why 'upgrade' and 'release' are better terms than 'update' and
'version'.

So far nobody has got an issue to know 'apt'. If you already know
'apt', then read the purposely briefly worded man(ual) page.

Don't be confused by my wording "low level", that I used a few replies
back and the man page's wording "high-level". The level is related to
the context.

Excerpts from running
[weremouse at moonstudio ~]$ man apt

"update (apt-get(8))
           update is used to download package information from all configured sources. Other commands operate on this data to e.g. perform package upgrades or search in and display
           details about all packages available for installation.

       upgrade (apt-get(8))
           upgrade is used to install available upgrades of all packages currently installed on the system from the sources configured via sources.list(5). New packages will be installed
           if required to statisfy dependencies, but existing packages will never be removed. If an upgrade for a package requires the remove of an installed package the upgrade for this
           package isn't performed.

       full-upgrade (apt-get(8))
           full-upgrade performs the function of upgrade but will remove currently installed packages if this is needed to upgrade the system as a whole."

That's why I suggested that the man page additionally should explicitly
mention that full-upgrade doesn't upgrade to another release of the
distribution, see
https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/what-do-you-want-to-see-in-apt/16588/10 .

In the meantime littlergirl's reply is approved, see
https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/what-do-you-want-to-see-in-apt/16588/14 .

However, as already pointed out, run 'apropos' with different search
terms, to understand why e.g. 'upgrade' is likely a better term than
'update'. Let alone that it already would be way to confusing to mix or
to change terms, if they would be used only by apt.

littlergirl mentions that "Most help pages and most helpful individuals
give command-line advice rather than GUI steps or advice. In addition,
most people who give command-line advice don’t explain the commands
they suggest or offer instructions on how a user can look up what the
commands do."

If a user does ask how to do something, the user should expect, that the
hints given by skilled people, are the steps to do what they are asking
for and not that they might do something else, assuming the hints
are from known community members or at least the community didn't warn
about wrong hints.

In the future those helping by providing command line steps could
offend netiquette and add "RTFM". Note! Command line copy and paste
could be done by everybody, even by people using Braille or screen
readers. Describing how to use a GUI does often require that the user
who asks and the user who helps are seeing the same icons, so they need
to use the same icon theme.