jmr wrote:
Folks - I'd like to clarify a few things.
At the minute we have a per repository view. With large number of
packages it is not working well for type ahead search. There are some
things we can do to improve the situation, but until we have a
scalable solution I'd vote for turning it off (I had added the
preferences dialog setting, but given Glynn's comments, am happy to
just turn off the feature and leave the gconf key there for those who
want to turn it on). In the meantime Michal's web rev is still useful
for us to improve overall category browsing and startup performance,
when coupled with a cpickle cache for the repo.
I'm glad that we're going with turning it off for now. I hope you'll
consider the solution I proposed earlier for how to handle type ahead
search, at least as long as the search box is only searching package
names, in a way that might scale better, or let me know why it's a dumb
idea.
I have no objection at all to a unified cross repository view but this
is not something we can achieve with the current implementation. As
various folks have suggested we could move over to a search based
implementation, where we populate a Tree View on the left hand side
with category nodes from all registered repos, then as a user clicks
on one of these nodes issue the appropriate search to populate the
right hand list view. When we have a search api in place and its
performant enough to allow this to happen its something we could do,
but not for this release. We can discuss possible designs with xDesign
when the support is in place. It should be noted that a search based
approach is not the only solution as Ubuntu have demonstrated with
their caching implementation that supports cross repository browsing.
To be clear, the suggestion I laid out for browsing doesn't line up with
anything you've stated above, and had nothing to do with search.
I guess I don't understand why it's not possible to achieve a unified
view with the current implementation, but I'll accept that it's not. If
that's the case, then since all that code will need to be rewritten
anyway, I guess there's no problem with the putback b/c we're not moving
further from a unified view, we're already as far as we can get.
As a side note, remote search, which is what I presume you mean when
you're talking about it above, is performant now (or likely as
performant as it's going to get anytime soon). The interface to remote
search will be changing slightly, but not a huge amount. So developing
against what's there today will get you 90%+ of the way to what's coming
soon, and I can hand you a workspace with the search API changes in it
if that's helpful so you can start testing them if you'd like. I'm not
sure why having the API is a prerequisite for discussing a design with
xDesign, but the API is basically settled pending feedback from
consumers. I'm happy to put out a preliminary webrev and keep it
reasonably updated as well if that'd help.
Brock
What we have planned to do for this release is to introduce a cross
repository search option (from a search combo drop down) which will
allow a user to search across all repos. The results listed will show
the repository of origin instead of the description. Clicking on a
result row will fetch the description data. This will go some way to
addressing users concerns about supporting cross repository actions.
JR
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.
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