Synaptic menu does not follow GNOME HIG closely

[Sitsofe Wheeler]

The synaptic menu feels a bit out of place compared to many of the other programs on the Ubuntu desktop. I think this is because it deviates from the GNOME menu HIG (http://developer.gnome.org/projects/gup/hig/2.0/menus-standard.html ) a little bit:

Properties is in the Package menu rather than the File menu.

Unmark all has no shortcut.

Toolbar options are in Settings rather than View menu.

Toolbar options don't offer option to follow GNOME defaults.

Refresh option isn't in View menu.

Preferences aren't in Edit menu.

[Og Maciel (ogmaciel)]

Confirmed in Dapper Flight 3.

[Roman Kennke (roman-kennke)]

May I add to this that Synaptic doesn't recognize the user settings that can be made in System->Settings->Menus and Toolbars (I hope this is the correct translation, I am using a german setup). What I mean is that I can select to display text and icons, only icons or only text, most Gnome apps follow this, but synaptic doesn't. Maybe this is what the original submitter meant by 'Toolbar options don't offer option to follow GNOME defaults.'?

[Michael Vogt (mvo)]

Thanks for your bugreport.

I CCed Sebastian Heinlein the synaptic HIG expert :) (hope you don't mind Sebastian).

About the System Settings. The problem here is that synaptic must run as root to work properly. And root is a different user so it has it's own gconf database etc. That's unfortunately pretty hard to fix.

[Sebastian Heinlein (glatzor)]

>Properties is in the Package menu rather than the File menu.

Synaptic is not SDI: You don't open a single package in synaptic. In fact it is the abstract software/package state of your system. This is the reason for the separate menu "package". So properties of a package belong there.

>Unmark all has no shortcut.

I don't use the option so often. So I don't see any need for a shortcut. How often do you use this function? Which shortcut would you suggest?

>Toolbar options are in Settings rather than View menu.

We don't have a menu "view" so. The HIG discourages from using menus containing less than three items.

>Toolbar options don't offer option to follow GNOME defaults.

Synaptic needs to be run as user root via su or sudo. So it cannot follow the user settings.

>Refresh option isn't in View menu.

Read carefully in the HIG: This is not "refresh" it is "reload". Even adding "Refresh" in the menu "View" is only an exception related to web browsers.

>Preferences aren't in Edit menu.

I know. There is this ugly menu "Settings". A former (?) developer Gustavo voted against menu redesign. Does Connectiva still use Synaptic, Michael?

Some brain dump on how to get rid of the menu "settings":

* Move "Preferences", "Repositories" and "Filters" to "Edit" (This would be the HIG style).
* Move "Set internal option..." to the menu "Help" - since it is only needed by the support team of Connectiva. And support and help belong together. I still think that this menu item doesn't belong in any menu.

=> What about the sub menu "toolbar?
=> The menu "edit" gets really large.

Thanks for your input and interest in improving Synaptic.

I would appreciate further comments from you.

Sebastian

[Laurent Claessens (moky-math)]

Some propositions about Synaptic menu

Apply marked changes Edit ---> packages (logically with the Mark for installations, for uninstallation, ...)
Unmark all Edit ---> Packages (just bellow Unmark)

Preferences Setting ----> Edit

Rename Setting --> Repositories options
The tab "Distribution" of Preference becomes a submenu in Repositories options
"Generate package download script" and "add download package" from File go there too.
"Reload package information" and "add CD rom" from Edit also goes to Repositories options

I thing it will be a litle more clear.
Thanks you
Laurent

[Sebastian Heinlein (glatzor)]

I like the idea to use a repository menu.

But the name of the other menu isn't "packages", instead it is "package" and refers only to the currently seleceted package. So it should not contain any command that affects all packages.

[rusivi2 (rusivi2-deactivatedaccount)]

Thank you for posting this bug.

Does this issue occur in Lucid?