[maemo-developers] Application manager category view proposals

[From: Ryan Abel]

Marius Vollmer wrote:

> "ext Ryan Abel" <rabelg5 at gmail.com> writes:
>
>> https://bugs.maemo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=3103
>
> Cool.  We are aware that the category view sucks pretty hard, and I,
> too, only ever use the All category.  I'll try to get some opinions  
> from
> our UI designers about your proposals.

It's really not that bad, the "All"-issue really has more to do with  
the repository category mess than any GUI issues with Application  
manager.

Thanks for the consideration! :D

> What about improving search?  Are categories useful at all for finding
> things?

Search isn't particularly important to me, if I want to install  
something specific, it's usually done through apt.

The primary uses I get out of Application manager are looking for new  
and interesting packages (for which it mostly sucks right now, as it  
involves me hitting "All" and scanning the whole lists for things that  
look new), which a "New since last refresh" pseudo-section would be  
incredibly useful for, and updating installed packages, which works  
just fine (except for the lack of an Update All—Diablo—and the  
tendency to "close unexpectedly" after about every 2nd or 3rd package  
install).

> I would be happy to let you guys code directly in the Application
> manager sources.  Interested?  (I know I will be glacially slow to  
> react
> to whatever patches you send my way...)

I'm actually rather surprised by the lack of code-input from the  
community on hildon-application-manager considering it's open and how  
much there is wrong with it. ;)

> (I like the treeview variant best, so far.  The grid view might have
> problems with long category names, and the column view looks too much
> like the File manager.)

Personally, while slightly counter to simplicity, I'd like to see all  
three implemented (hopefully improved and cleaned-up versions,  
anyway :P) and give the user the option of choosing which they'd like.  
Either through the preferences dialog (non-optimal) or through some  
sort of tab or button interface (probably button, as tabs don't quite  
make sense) on the under-populated button-bar at the bottom. Something  
along the lines of Media player's Library/Now playing selector would  
work well.
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