Hi Mike,
Thanks for your very careful and detailed review. The current package is
far from even alpha level, but your comments help insure that we do
clean-up our dangling details...
Michael Pogue wrote:
> Here are some more (mostly minor) comments on the GUI (overall, I like
> it!):
>
> 1) Is the first screen 'language' or 'locale'?
It is the language the installer will use in subsequent screens. This
also implies appropriate language specific input methods though locale
specific items like date formatting, currency, etc. aren't needed. The
appearance of this screen will be updated to show only each language
name in its native language and character set - no English translations.
> 2) It would be nice to have all the translations there.
Should be available in all languages listed.
> 3) Only Korean has a shortcut? (the underline on the K)
No shortcuts as the keyboard layout has not yet been asked.
> 4) Do radio buttons scale to the number of language/locales that we need?
Yes. Only ten currently, but list could scroll if needed. Better than
drop-downs which would also have to scroll.
> 5) I think this first page could use a title (e.g. "Select a
> language", or "select a locale").
What language would you put it in? We could, of course, title the window
with something like "Language". We are removing the specific concept of
"locale" as it is confusing for many. Locale does make an implicit
appearance later when the user selects the primary language to be used
after rebooting - the language selection is paired with a country, but
this does not require the use to understand "locale".
> 6) Espanol needs a tilde over the n. I'm missing a couple of unicode
> characters in the translation of Chinese - Simplified (the first two
> characters are boxes). Francais needs a cedilla on the c, too... :-)
These are placeholders. They'll all be fixed before release.
> 7) Why are the first two pages completed with "OK", but the next pages
> completed with "Next>"? It seems to me that it might be more
> consistent to use "Next>" throughout.
As mentioned in another reply, the user can't return to these pages once
they reach the Welcome page.
> 8) On the Disk page, generally items that are not selectable should be
> greyed out, rather than giving me an error message ("this disk is too
> small") after I click them. (It's probably better to leave them on
> the list as greyed out, rather than taking them off the list entirely.)
As mentioned in another reply, Caiman does little if any disabling. This
allows the user to click on something to find out information about it
rather than having to try to figure out why the item is disabled.
> 9) On the Disk page, the "type '=' into any partition size to adjust
> the available disk space" seems strange. What does it do? (I
> couldn't figure out how to type an equal sign into any Size field
> here). That would be a fairly non-standard thing to do -- what's the
> intent here?
Typing "=" into any partition size field adjusts that partition's size
by the "Available" size amount such that the available disk space goes
to zero - no remaining unused/over allocated disk space. Save the user
from having to do the mental arithmetic. There is a "bug" in the current
implementation - changes should occur on the keystroke, not when the
field looses focus.
> 10) If I have one active partition, and I make it smaller, should the
> available space show up in the "Unused" partition? Or maybe, I'm not
> sure how the "unused" partition type works, because its size field is
> greyed out and set to zero when I select "Unused". Don't "Unused"
> partitions also have sizes?
No, the released disk space shows up in Available at the bottom. We
shouldn't presume the user is freeing up space for a new partition. They
may be freeing it up to increase the size of another partition. Unused
partitions do not have sizes. Again, the keystroke entry "bug" in Q9 is
probably creating some confusion.
> 11) On the Disk page, "Next>" should be the default button, if I press
> ENTER.
Agreed.
> 12) On Date and Time, I think the date should be changed to be like
> "Apr" "6" "2007", and the YYYY-MM-DD string should be deleted. If it's
> ####-##-##, then it needs an explanation, but if it's MONTH-##-####,
> then the confusion (which requires the help string) is eliminated by
> design. In any case, the '-'s between the M/Y/D could also be
> eliminated this way -- no need for them.
YYYY-MM-DD is less locale sensitive.
> 13) It could probably also be localized as per the initial two panels.
> (e.g. in Europe, the order is different from the US.)
We don't want to force the user to specify a locale in addition to a
language in the first panel.
> 14) Hmmm...the Hour field is 0 - 12. That doesn't seem right. Are 0
> AM and 0 PM both valid times?
There is no 0 pm, but there are both 0 and 12 am depending on 12/24 hour
time.
> 15) Might want to consider making the hour field wrap, e.g. 12 --> 1
> if ^ is clicked (just the way most real clocks work).
Agreed.
> 16) Might want to consider making the hour field and the AM/PM fields
> 24 hour in other locales (or maybe you already did this? I didn't
> check... :-)
User selectable AM/PM/24.
>
> 17) On the Users screen, if the passwords don't match for the user
> account, the error message is "User account error - must enter all or
> none of the user account information". This is fairly generic (and
> somewhat misleading).
> I think there's a much better way to handle errors: if the data is
> invalid (e.g. passwords don't match), then don't enable the "Next>"
> button. (Of course, make sure that there's a visible error message
> somewhere in this case.) When the data is there, the Next> button
> should be the default when ENTER is pressed.
Again, the user may not realize why the Next is not enabled even with a
visible message. Users often don't look where we want them too. Myself
included. ;-) We are working with the Docs folks to improve the
message text.
Agreed that ENTER should trigger Next.
>
> 18) Same thing on the Install page -- if I haven't accepted the terms
> of the license agreement, don't enable the Install button for me.
Again, we don't want to make the user guess. More work for us to add the
extra error messages, but you'll note that we are allowing the user to
accept the license within the dialog, which then proceeds to the next
screen, rather than forcing the user to close the dialog, check the box,
and click Install again.
> 19) Note the error message in this case is "License not agreed. - Do
> you consent to license agreement ?", with an option of CANCEL or OK.
> This is not quite good English...and Cancel/OK could probably be
> changed to something better, like NO/YES.
Agreed.
> 20) I'd like an STOP INSTALLATION button on the Install panel
> somewhere, in case I wanted to stop/abort the installation process.
> (Quit is not the same thing, IMHO).
This has to wait for a future release as we are still using the old
pfinstall underpinnings, which doesn't support either quit or stop, for
this first release. We will also be disabling Quit for this release.
We'll consider Stop for a future release when we can also enable Quit,
but I'm inclined to keep it simple with just a Quit. A terminal window
will be opened automatically when the user manually quits the installer,
allowing them to restart the installer, and there is little data to
re-enter.
> 21) The popup "DVD 2 Install" seems like the wrong question to me. If
> I asked for some amount of stuff to be installed, and it's on DVD 2,
> then it should be just the second panel: "Please insert DVD 2", rather
> than a question, right? Then when the "Please insert DVD 2" info
> popup does show up, the button should be OK or PROCEED or CONTINUE,
> instead of CLOSE (the red X is the problem here, I think).
Correct about the wording, but fortunately it turns out we can avoid the
second DVD for this release. However, in the future if/when a second DVD
is needed, there is also a need to provide a Cancel button in order to
allow a graceful exit in the event the user doesn't have the second DVD.
>
> 22) "Initialising" is spelled wrong (at least for the US locale! :-)
> on the Installing panel.
The UI developer is from Ireland. :-) But I think we will be using US
spellings - Sorry Niall. ;-)
> 23) I think that the "Please remove DVD 1 and reboot" popup should be
> "Please remove DVD 1" and the button should say "REBOOT NOW" (instead
> of "Close").
This has been changed. When the tools install completes the terminal
window will close and the user will be returned to a screen in the
installer. This screen will provide direct access to the install logs
and the Next button will be labeled "Reboot"
> 24) I can't get past the "Insert DVD 2" popup (demo hangs).
Yes, this part is still in development and as noted above, is being changed.
>
> Overall I think the installer is definitely moving in the right
> direction -- great progress, all!
Thanks from us all.
Frank
>
>
> Mike
>
> Sarah Jelinek wrote:
>> Hi All,
>>
>> For those who might be interested to see how the Dwarf GUI is
>> progressing, we have created a binary package (X86) which is a
>> snapshot of the latest development code.
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