Re: [Mingw-users] Comments on mingw-get-setup

[Keith M. <kei...@us...>]

[In a private message, reproduced here with his permission]

On 26/07/13 17:02, Peter J. Farley III wrote:
> I took the time to get and use the current beta of mingw-get-setup on
> a machine with no mingw-msys at all, and I wanted to privately send
> you a few comments regarding my experiences with it for your
> consideration in the further development of the tool.
> 
> 1.	The look-and-feel so far remind me a bit of the Cygwin setup
> tool, though obviously many of the options present in the Cygwin setup
> are not there yet.  Not a bad thing, I like the ability to choose what
> will be downloaded.

I would have hoped that it might remind you of Synaptic, (one of the GUI
wrappers for Debian's apt-get tool), on which it is modelled; it
certainly does not even attempt to replicate the Cygwin setup tool,
(which I personally dislike).

> 2.	Obvious to me at least, there need to be some "grouping" items
> to select what the user is being presented to choose from.  At a first
> cut, the following would seem to me to be reasonable groupings to
> provide:
> 	a.	Meta -- All "meta" selections in the list
> 	b.	Mingw -- All mingw selections, including "meta"
> selections
> 	c.	Msys -- All msys selections, including "meta"
> selections

The latest snapshot, (which I was in the midst of publishing as this
arrived in my inbox), already supports this.  The selection categories
are not yet finalised, but they are not, (and will not be), hard coded
within mingw-get; they are defined within the XML package catalogue, and
can be redefined at any time.

> 	d.	Bin -- All "bin" selections
> 	d.	Src -- All "src" selections
> 	e.	Doc -- All "doc" selections

These represent the component package "classes", as they are presented
in the package list view.  As with the category group names, these are
arbitrary, and are determined by the XML, rather than by mingw-get.  I
do plan to add filters to selectively exclude specific classes from the
visible package list, but this is a low priority enhancement, with no
ETA at present.

> 	f.	DocMingw -- All "doc" selections in the mingw group
> 	g.	DocMsys -- All "doc" selections in the msys group
> 	h.	SrcMingw -- All "src" selections in the mingw group
> 	i.	SrcMsys -- All "src" selections in the msys group

This, I will not support specifically; users may achieve this, when the
class filters become available, by appropriate filtering on the active
package category selection.

> 	j.	Installed -- All items already installed on this
> system
> 	k.	Not Installed -- All items not yet installed on this
> system

This could be achieved by a further filter; under consideration, but
again no ETA at present.

> 	l.	Upgraded -- All items already installed which have a
> newer version available

Already supported, by a change in the package status icon in the list
view; (yellow star overlay on the green icon of installed packages).
Visibility will be improved, when the "installed only" filter becomes
available; possibly more so, with an "upgradeable only" filter.

> 	Perhaps several different selection settings, one for
> All/Meta/Mingw/Msys, one for All/Bin/Doc/Src and one for
> "All/Installed/Not Installed/Upgraded", which would provide a
> finer-grained set of selection criteria.  Being able to select more
> than one from each selection group (maybe checkboxes?) would be even
> more flexible, e.g. being able to select all Bin and Doc in the mingw
> group.

Seems a rather nebulous, kludgy, and arbitrarily heuristic request; I
will not consider any addition which is heuristic in nature.

> 3.	A global option to always select a matching "doc" entry
> whenever a "bin" selection is made, for those of us who insist on
> always having "doc" to match our "bin"

This is a request for individual package maintainers.  The names "bin"
and "doc" convey no specific meaning to mingw-get.  To achieve any such
capability, package maintainers would either need to declare their doc
packages as unconditional requirements of their bin packages, (which
negates any benefit from segregating them), or they would need to
provide an additional meta-package, dependent on both.

> 4.	A way to specify "select (or de-select or toggle selection
> setting) all items in the current grouping" so that, for instance, all
> mingw or all msys or all DocMingw etc. items could be selected (or
> de-selected or toggled) with one click

Once again, this seems to be getting into the realm of heuristic coding,
which is broken by design; I will not consider it.

> 5.	A similar but separate way to select/de-select/toggle the
> upgrade setting

You already have "Installation --> Mark All Upgrades" to select all
available, and "Installation --> Apply Changes --> Discard" if you
change your mind; I'm unlikely to give you anything more than this.

> 6.	This new mingw-get-setup needs to also be capable of setting
> up the msys shortcut on the user's desktop like the current
> mingw-get-inst does, or at least a selectable option to set up that
> shortcut.  If there is a selection for an msys shortcut in the current
> version I did not see it.

The capability has been supported, since mingw-get-0.5; the MSYS package
maintainer needs to code his package catalogue to make use
of it; see https://sourceforge.net/p/mingw/bugs/2008/

> Thanks very much for working on what seems to be a very good tool for
> installing and updating a mingw/msys environment.  I think it will
> help increase the number of programmers and users of these tools.

You're welcome.

-- 
Regards,
Keith.