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Date:      Sun, 31 Aug 1997 18:31:23 -0500 (EST)
From:      John Fieber <jfieber@indiana.edu>
To:        "Jordan K. Hubbard" <jkh@time.cdrom.com>
Cc:        Peter Korsten <peter@grendel.IAEhv.nl>, freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   sysinstall (was Re: Conclusion to "NT vs. Unix" debate)
Message-ID:  <Pine.BSF.3.96.970831175422.307J-100000@fallout.campusview.indiana.edu>
In-Reply-To: <5354.873063267@time.cdrom.com>

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On Sun, 31 Aug 1997, Jordan K. Hubbard wrote:

> Let's take sysinstall for example, something which you say has a
> confusing GUI with a poor selection model.  I agree with you.
> sysinstall's UI is a festering heap of trash which annoys me, its
> principle author, probably more than anyone.  Why is it so evil?
> Because it uses libdialog(3) and a series of hand-rolled curses(3)
> screens, the many limitations of those stemming from the general
> unwieldyness of curses programming and my lack of time to sit down and
> write a whole bunch of advanced curses widgets like scrolling list
> boxes or expanding lists.

Indeed there are numerous mechanical glitches in the interface
that are annoying and can be attributed to a less than stunning
UI library, but some larger scale navigation problems are not
really toolkit related.

Particularly disorienting is the behavior of the "Cancel" 
buttons, or the lack of a "back" button.  When proceeding through
the various setup screens, if a mistake is made you usually end
up going right back to the start and have to proceed through the
whole process again.  A "back" button also provides the essential
ability to review the installation options before pressing the GO
button. 

Since people typically read documentation only as a last resort,
more could be done to provide cues about the installation process
at an overview level--where you have been and where you are
going. For example, a bit of screen space could be devoted to a
little outline of the process, with completed steps appropriately
marked.  There are basically five steps:  preparing the hard
drive(s), selecting the distributions, selecting the media,
installing, and configuring.  Such a little guide would do
wonders for making the whole installation process more coherent. 

That said, I've seen many install programs that are far worse!

-john




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