This is the mail archive of the cygwin@cygwin.com mailing list for the Cygwin project.


Index Nav: [Date Index] [Subject Index] [Author Index] [Thread Index]
Message Nav: [Date Prev] [Date Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next]

Re: setup.exe complaints


Michael Dyck wrote:
> 1) I ran my local copy of setup.exe and it told me there was a newer version
> that I might like to get. It would be nice if it gave me the option to do so
> right then, or at least reminded me of how to do it myself. 

This has been discussed so many times on the mailing list that I will leave it 
to you to check the archives for the various discussions on this subject.  I 
would agree perhaps a message of the form you suggested would be a viable 
option while I don't believe downloading is since you are running setup.exe it 
will be quite difficult for it to overwrite itself.  It did tell you there was 
a newer version so that is something.  I will also point out that this is a 
volunteer project and the maintainers are always more than glad to accept 
contributions for changes.  This would be I believe a relatively simple change 
if someone wanted to try their hand at contributing.

> 2)... Been the case for a while, I think: the option is now "Install from > 
*Local*
> Directory", and I get to pick the package directory. (And the package
> directory doesn't even need to directly contain .tar.gz files; it looks like
> setup finds any .tar.gz files recursively contained by the package
> directory.)

True this has also been discussed recently in the mailing list.  In fact their 
is now a specific structure to the directories that should be adhered to 
because of setup.ini (unless you want to start doing a lot of edits to do an 
install).  This will become more critical as we move more toward dependencies 
and package categories, although some have discussed trying to regain some of 
that flexibility.

> 3) At first, I wasn't entirely clear on the distinction between "local
> package directory" and "install root directory". It would have been nice to
> have that spelled out.

Hum,  I'm afraid to ask - but do you have any suggestions how we can make this 
any clearer - I guess we could call it 'package download directory' and 'cygwin 
install root directory'

> 4) I'm puzzled by the "Select packages to download/install" window.
>    (a) What to Prev/Curr/Exp do?
>    (b) What does Full/Part do?

Did you click on each one and see what happens.  Essentially each package (as 
setup.ini see them can have Prev, curr, or test version.  The initial display 
is to show current and then only a partial list.  The Partial list is all 
packages that need either downloading or installing depending on the action you 
selected (ie download, install from net, install from local) and their current 
existence on your system.  The full list shows you all packages that setup 
knows about but the ones that are current are set to keep.

>    (C) It seems like the default is to download/install everything (or
> everything new). If instead, I'm only interested in one package, it seems I
> have to click on every other package to change it to "Skip", which is a
> royal pain.

Since part of the objective of setup is to keep all packages current (by 
default) then any other option (ie go to a previous version, try a test 
version, don't do anything) becomes operator choice.  There has been a 
discussion of adding a skip all button but nothing done yet.  Again - there 
really is no shortage of ideas for things to do to setup - just man hours and 
volunteers to get them done.  The skip button is another one that I think would 
be relatively easy for someone new to cut their teeth on.

>    (D) Near the bottom, it says "(p) = previous version, (x) =
> experimental", but it's not clear what you're talking about. For a long
> time, I was looking for "p" and "x" in the scrollable pane. Now, I think
> maybe you're just giving the keyboard shortcuts for the Prev/Curr/Exp radio
> buttons. But why leave out "(c) = current"? And why bother with keyboard
> shortcuts at all, since the window can't be fully operated from the keyboard
> anyhow?

No, but we are adding more and more - all the time.  




--
Want to unsubscribe from this list?
Check out: http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple


Index Nav: [Date Index] [Subject Index] [Author Index] [Thread Index]
Message Nav: [Date Prev] [Date Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next]