KubuntuDapperPackageManager

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Revision 9 as of 2005-11-04 22:59:13
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Editor: 192_220_103_66-WIFI_HOTSPOTS
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Boab is a new computer user who wants to install a fun game, he finds adept too complex but is able to use the new simple package tool to search and install. Bob is a new computer user who wants to install a fun game, he finds adept too complex but is able to use the new simple package tool to search and install.

Summary

Kubuntu package manager tools for Dapper.

Rationale

Kubuntu Breezy added Adept, the first time KDE has had a first class .deb package manager. We should continue this work in Dapper.

Use cases

Bob is a new computer user who wants to install a fun game, he finds adept too complex but is able to use the new simple package tool to search and install.

Scope

Improve the existing tools and add an update-notifier, simple package manager and language selection tool. Investigate adding a .deb install tool.

Design

Adept

Adept 2.0 will add the ability to find more detailed package information including a file list, relations to other packages and available information. We should be careful here to do this in a way which does not crowd the user interface.

We will put Adept for a usability review on OpenUsability.org and implement any good suggestions from them.

Adept in SVN now creates .po files for translation, we will ship with these. We will also add i18n support to libapt-front for full i18n support in Adept. We will ensure Adept gets into Rosetta to make it easy for translators to use.

Options will be added to allow to purge and reinstall packages.

By default the console will be hidden and libapt's progress reporting functions will be used to display a progress bar only by default, with the option of showing the console.

Dependency tracking will be added pending this feature being included in libapt. This will allow for packages to be uninstalled with all the dependencies it brought in automatically uninstalled.

The undo and redo functions will be extended to show the user what will happen on each function.

We will add the ability to set version/release policy (pinning). This is another case where care with the user interface will have to be taken as it is a complex area.

Work is being completed on an advanced problem resolution algorithm in aptitide. This may be included in libapt. We will ensure this is supported in Adept if this happens.

Update Notifier

Adept includes an update application to download and install the latest packages. We will create an update notifier to monitor the archive (and sources.list) and bring up a notification when there are updates which will prompt the user to run Adept Updater. Similar to the Synaptic update-notifier ours should not keep a copy of the dpkg database in memory for longer than necessary.

Simplified Installer

We will create a simplified installer using the best user interface ideas from gnome-app-install.

.deb installer

Time permitting we will create a program to install individual .deb files. This would have to check if the dependencies could be resolved and install those or if they are not available install nothing.

Implementation

Update notifier will probably be created as a module of the KDE daemon.

The simplified installer should be based on libept, the user interface library for Adept and Adept Updater.

.deb installer details are to be worked out. It will be either via local repository managed by libapt-front or by reading in the information out of the .deb and finding the dependencies from that.

BoF agenda and discussion

Adept 2.0 Feature Plan (sorted by priority)

  • advanced problem resolution algorithm

KubuntuDapperPackageManager (last edited 2008-08-06 16:23:47 by localhost)