johan...@sun.com wrote:
On Tue, Feb 10, 2009 at 05:13:59PM -0800, Brock Pytlik wrote:
<snip>
From a user's perspective, I think I rarely care which repo a package comes
from. Sure, I want that information available if I ask for it, but I don't
want that to interfere with me finding a package or installing it. I bring
this up now b/c I think this changeset takes us farther away from that
perspective. If I've understood this set correctly, it's further separating
the repo information which may make it harder to implement a unified view
in the future.
I have to agree with Brock. It's going to make it difficult for users
to find packages if they have to flip through every authority when they
go looking for a particular package. We ought to be able to have a
unified view of the package namespace.
The CLI handles this problem by retrieving from the preferred authority
if multiple packages have the same name and the requested FMRI was
ambiguous. Otherwise the user must specify. However, the GUI doesn't
need to be this anal. In the case where two packages have the same
name, prefer the preferred authority. Otherwise prompt the user to
choose. Eventually, we may have a system of ranked preference.
However, splitting the packages up by repo is simply going to make it
harder for the user to find what he or she is looking for.
I have to add my assent to Brock and j's; there have been numerous
reviews of OpenSolaris that have complained about the non-unified view
that the packagemanager provides by default. I suspect most users are
looking for a piece of software and they don't care where it comes from
if they're using the gui; nor should they have to.
It's fine to have the ability to view packages from a single repository,
but a unified view should also be possible, and the default in my opinion.
--
Shawn Walker
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