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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