From owner-freebsd-chat Sun Aug 31 16:31:51 1997 Return-Path: Received: (from root@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) id QAA23788 for chat-outgoing; Sun, 31 Aug 1997 16:31:51 -0700 (PDT) Received: from fallout.campusview.indiana.edu (fallout.campusview.indiana.edu [149.159.1.1]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) with ESMTP id QAA23782 for ; Sun, 31 Aug 1997 16:31:44 -0700 (PDT) Received: from localhost (jfieber@localhost) by fallout.campusview.indiana.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5) with SMTP id SAA01644; Sun, 31 Aug 1997 18:31:23 -0500 (EST) Date: Sun, 31 Aug 1997 18:31:23 -0500 (EST) From: John Fieber To: "Jordan K. Hubbard" cc: Peter Korsten , freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: sysinstall (was Re: Conclusion to "NT vs. Unix" debate) In-Reply-To: <5354.873063267@time.cdrom.com> Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk 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