GSoC: PKGNG GUI Proposal Available for Review

[Teske, Devin]

On May 3, 2013, at 1:33 AM, Wojciech Puchar wrote:

good for today and future ladmins that cannot type a command.

Any USEFUL proposals that add some real functionality?


WIth great respect, I disagree with the dismissal that a GUI itself cannot bring value that a command-line tool couldn't otherwise bring to the table.

For example, in a stateful modal dialog, I believe that part of the value-add is seeing realtime calculations being performed based on user input. For a concrete example, imagine as you are checking/unchecking boxes of what to install, if the GUI continually keeps up-to-date a display of selected dependencies (packages and leaves), then that is something that on the command-line tool is more difficult.

What is the value-add in that you may say? Exploring, of course! Imagine that you have a need to fill, you go into a particular package category, and are faced with 5 things that all fill the same basic need -- but perhaps all but one has a massive runtime dependency list, so you choose that one. In this example, the GUI is far superior to command-line tools.

I'm actually taking the same approach in the design of "bsdconfig packages" (visible here: http://twitpic.com/ci2rid ) in that the TUI based management will aim to give you all that extra value-added information that would otherwise take multiple command-line queries and extra effort to correlate.

I argue that the goal should not be to develop tools that are useful for (as you call them) "ladmins" … but develop tools that the developers themselves find useful.

I personally feel that I myself have failed as a developer if I ever develop a tool that I don't use myself (or at least find useful in replacing an old way of doing something that is much more difficult).
--
Devin

P.S. I'm sorry… but that callous remark sparked a fire in me. Had to set the record straight… we need to give this student a running chance -- don't dare say this won't be useful (I've read the project proposal… it's good and it has bapt's +1 iirc, so that makes it good as gold basically)



On Fri, 3 May 2013, Justin Edward Muniz wrote:

Thank you everyone for helping me create a suitable project to propose. I
have submitted a draft of my proposal, though I am still in the process of
enhancing it. If anyone has the time, please check it out and I'll gladly
accept any feedback.

I am new to Google Summer of Code, and just discovered I could update my
proposal after submitting it. Initially I uploaded most of the proposal but
I am still finishing the last parts. Any advice could help me (or others)
develop future proposals, so I hope to hear from people even after the
deadline.

My proposal can be read at the following address:
https://www.google-melange.com/gsoc/proposal/review/google/gsoc2013/justin_muniz/1

I appreciate you taking the time to read this email. Happy coding everyone.

Justin Muniz
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