Awn Extras

Bug #160375
Comment #6

Comment 6 for bug 160375

Revision history for this message

Mark Lee (malept) wrote on 2008-01-17:

> If the package name is there, you double the workload for the developer (in the WORST case)

I don't think it's the job of the applet developer to find out the exact dependencies for each and every distribution that their applet's users may run. It should be a collaborative effort, hence why it's in the wiki.

> as opposed to going somewhere unknown (which may not have been updated in a while, our
> wiki isn't quite that good yet), finding something unknownish, and then installing it.

Conversely, the dependencies for distribution X in an applet's source could not have been updated in a while. I find this particular argument not very relevant.

I don't like the fact that you call the wiki "somewhere unknown". It's the official wiki, not some Joe Blogger's "HOWTO install Awn in three easy steps". Additionally, I don't exactly understand what you mean by "finding something unknownish". The exact package names for the distributions listed are named, and if someone reports that the dependencies are listed incorrectly, it's fixed.

> Plus, the pyawn method requires a restart of the applet, as opposed to just clicking
> OK. I personally dislike restarts of AWN (which is what the average user would do, as
> opposed to removing/adding the applet) since I have to reenter passwords, set
> audio devices, and such.

I'm not opposed to changing the dialog so that the wiki button doesn't kill the dialog, the "OK" button turns into a "Try Loading it again" button, which just re-runs the function, and adding another button, "Cancel" (which just leaves the user with the infamous white line). I'm not wedded to the text of either button.

> Plus, if you add the disto packages, you can then add some sort of autodetection
> of distro to make life more simple for the user (I use Mepis but only Ubuntu and
> Fedora are listed here, or there are hundreds here, I'll never find Debian!).

I looked into detecting distributions and the auto-installation of dependencies when I first opened this bug. It is a *very* non-trivial thing to do reliably.

> Plus, it assaults the user with popups which is NEVER good.

Um, what? my function only raises one Gtk+ dialog, and if they click the wiki button, then the wiki link is opened in either a new tab or a new window, depending on the python version. I hardly see that as "assaulting".

> If the package name is there, you double the workload for the developer (in the WORST case)

I don't think it's the job of the applet developer to find out the exact dependencies for each and every distribution that their applet's users may run.  It should be a collaborative effort, hence why it's in the wiki.

> as opposed to going somewhere unknown (which may not have been updated in a while, our
> wiki isn't quite that good yet), finding something unknownish, and then installing it.

Conversely, the dependencies for distribution X in an applet's source could not have been updated in a while.  I find this particular argument not very relevant.

I don't like the fact that you call the wiki "somewhere unknown".  It's the official wiki, not some Joe Blogger's "HOWTO install Awn in three easy steps".  Additionally, I don't exactly understand what you mean by "finding something unknownish".  The exact package names for the distributions listed are named, and if someone reports that the dependencies are listed incorrectly, it's fixed.

I looked into detecting distributions and the auto-installation of dependencies when I first opened this bug.  It is a *very* non-trivial thing to do reliably.

> Plus, it assaults the user with popups which is NEVER good.

Um, what?  my function only raises one Gtk+ dialog, and if they click the wiki button, then the wiki link is opened in either a new tab or a new window, depending on the python version.  I hardly see that as "assaulting".