Svetoslav Slavtchev posted <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, excerpted below, on Thu, 09 Oct 2003 12:58:46 +0200:
>> Le mer 08/10/2003 � 22:58, Keld J�rn Simonsen a �crit : >> >> No please. because : >> 1�/ the menu will be cluttered at first, You'd rather install >> automatically a selection of package you think that will be usefull for >> the user >> 2�/ a user expect that applications in his menu are installed ! If he >> clicks and nothing happen, his first though will be : It's broken. Right >> click and then install ? see point 1 > > 3�/ (hi hi) > it could be in a sub menu "install more software", > which uses the menu structure of the main menu, > has nice icons, and a good description I like this idea. Have one entry on the menu that leads to another copy of the menu, as suggested. Note that menu right-clicking would be a function of the environment used. KDE, the Mdk default, may well (probably will, as the current menu is comparable to the Win95 menu at this point, and folks used to W98+ functionality with dynamic right-clickable reorganizeable menus would find it useful) include right click functionality of their own at some point. I don't believe patching Mdk's KDE to include install, therefore, is a very good idea. However, having as one entry a nested copy of the main menu layout, with all possible entries on it, for (un)installation, would be manageable using the current interface. All it would require would be some more text format .mnu files under /usr/lib/menu, and perhaps loading a few more icons, tho not many as many of them are used multiple times as is. Item entries on this new menu would call up a tool that would see if it was installed already or not. If so, it would offer the user the option of uninstalling it. If not, it would offer the user the option of installing it. Alternatively, packages could be modified to change this menu entry upon installation, and change it back upon uninstall. In this way, the entry could display say an x if uninstalled, or a plus if installed, making it immediately obvious what was installed from the installer menu, without having to take a trip back out to the main menu to look again, if in doubt. The core Mdk installation would include a mandrake-installer-menu package, with the installer/uninstaller app, and possibly the additional menu layout (which would otherwise be packaged and installed with the standard menu package). A separate package, say mandrake-installer-menu-screenshots, could be made optional. I haven't actually run a full distrib install since 8.1 (as I urpmi upgrade instead), but if a fairly standard normal vs. custom/minimal install option is used, normal would include the screenshots package by default, but custom/minimal would not. As for space, yes, the screenshots package WOULD take a non-trivial amount of additional space, but if done right, I believe it would be well worth the cost in terms of trading out another package to include it. I'd suggest putting screenshots on disk 2 (or even 3), but the installer menu on disk one, if possible, or in place of rpmdrake or whatever, whichever disk that's on. (Rpmdrake and anything else it replaced could then be put on disk 3, or later (left off the disks, as many apps, on the mirrors and in packaged sets, if the d/l edition remains @ 3 disks), rather than removed entirely, if so desired.) As well, low rez or highly compressed jpgs could be used, helping to control space use. Again, yes, this WOULD mean a trade-off, but I expect newbies would more than appreciate the additional ease of use, making it well worth it. -- Duncan - List replies preferred. No HTML msgs. "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." -- Benjamin Franklin
