Folks - I'd like to clarify a few things.
At the minute we have a per repository view. With large number of
packages it is not working well for type ahead search. There are some
things we can do to improve the situation, but until we have a scalable
solution I'd vote for turning it off (I had added the preferences dialog
setting, but given Glynn's comments, am happy to just turn off the
feature and leave the gconf key there for those who want to turn it on).
In the meantime Michal's web rev is still useful for us to improve
overall category browsing and startup performance, when coupled with a
cpickle cache for the repo.
I have no objection at all to a unified cross repository view but this
is not something we can achieve with the current implementation. As
various folks have suggested we could move over to a search based
implementation, where we populate a Tree View on the left hand side with
category nodes from all registered repos, then as a user clicks on one
of these nodes issue the appropriate search to populate the right hand
list view. When we have a search api in place and its performant enough
to allow this to happen its something we could do, but not for this
release. We can discuss possible designs with xDesign when the support
is in place. It should be noted that a search based approach is not the
only solution as Ubuntu have demonstrated with their caching
implementation that supports cross repository browsing.
What we have planned to do for this release is to introduce a cross
repository search option (from a search combo drop down) which will
allow a user to search across all repos. The results listed will show
the repository of origin instead of the description. Clicking on a
result row will fetch the description data. This will go some way to
addressing users concerns about supporting cross repository actions.
JR
[email protected] wrote:
On Tue, Feb 10, 2009 at 05:13:59PM -0800, Brock Pytlik wrote:
<snip>
From a user's perspective, I think I rarely care which repo a
package comes from. Sure, I want that information available if I ask
for it, but I don't want that to interfere with me finding a package
or installing it. I bring this up now b/c I think this changeset
takes us farther away from that perspective. If I've understood this
set correctly, it's further separating the repo information which
may make it harder to implement a unified view in the future.
I have to agree with Brock. It's going to make it difficult for users
to find packages if they have to flip through every authority when they
go looking for a particular package. We ought to be able to have a
unified view of the package namespace.
The CLI handles this problem by retrieving from the preferred authority
if multiple packages have the same name and the requested FMRI was
ambiguous. Otherwise the user must specify. However, the GUI doesn't
need to be this anal. In the case where two packages have the same
name, prefer the preferred authority. Otherwise prompt the user to
choose. Eventually, we may have a system of ranked preference.
However, splitting the packages up by repo is simply going to make it
harder for the user to find what he or she is looking for.
I have to add my assent to Brock and j's; there have been numerous
reviews of OpenSolaris that have complained about the non-unified view
that the packagemanager provides by default. I suspect most users are
looking for a piece of software and they don't care where it comes
from if they're using the gui; nor should they have to.
It's fine to have the ability to view packages from a single
repository, but a unified view should also be possible, and the
default in my opinion.
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