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To: John Fieber <jfieber@indiana.edu>
cc: Mike Smith <mike@smith.net.au>, Peter Korsten <peter@grendel.IAEhv.nl>,
        freebsd-chat@freebsd.org
Subject: Re: sysinstall (was Re: Conclusion to "NT vs. Unix" debate) 
In-reply-to: Your message of "Mon, 01 Sep 1997 23:37:01 CDT."
             <Pine.BSF.3.96.970901230429.307V-100000@fallout.campusview.indiana.edu> 
Date: Mon, 01 Sep 1997 23:28:53 -0700
Message-ID: <19964.873181733@time.cdrom.com>
From: "Jordan K. Hubbard" <jkh@time.cdrom.com>
Sender: owner-freebsd-chat@freebsd.org
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> Obviously if the change results in taking a differnt branch
> through the install process, eg changing from a CDROM install to
> a network install, you will have to proceed through screen at a
> time from at least the branch point on.

That's one of the reasons I'd want to express the install in terms of
functional blocks which can be arranged, rearranged and viewed as a
list of things to do, those already performed marked in some way.

This would allow the more advanced users to drop into "create your own
installation sequence" mode, where you could "drag" the following
items off of a palette for a truly custom installation sequence:

disks-partition
disks-label
media-select ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD
dist-select interactive
install-commit
dist-select des eBones
media-select ftp://ftp.internat.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD
install-commit
media-select CDROM
dist-select extras
install-commit

This contrived example aimed at installing the base OS from
ftp.freebsd.org and the not-for-export bits from
ftp.internat.freebsd.org.  Far more creative combinations would, of
course, be possible.

> Lacking a visualization of the tree, a linear model with forward
> and back would be more consistent with what a user experiences,
> particularly if they don't make mistakes that cause different
> branches to be traversed.

I think even the linear model should allow visualization of planned or
already performed operations.  It would make it a lot more evident
what was going on, for one thing, and hopefully eventually lead to
novice users becoming more advanced ones over time.

					Jordan