[Synaptic-devel] interface changes in 0.51

[Frank Van Damme]

Hello,

I've been using Synaptic for some time, it's a kickass program and about the 
most userfriendly graphical frontend to a package manager that I know about. 

However, I am not entirely happy with the changes in the user interface in the 
latest version. 

- in previous versions the filters where more accessible. Now the user has to 
choose between selecting a filter and viewing a specific section.

- the tab sheets at the bottom have disappeared, and are only accessible by 
the entry "properties" in the context menu. Imho the long description, 
dependencies and other package info are basic stuff that should not be hidden 
away in a popup window. 

- I can not find back the ability to install a particular version of a given 
package, which - for me - is a good reason to use Synaptic instead of 
command-line apt.

- In previous versions the Keep, Install and Remove (which are the basic 
functions of Synaptic) were clearly visible, which isn't the case anymore.

- I find the way of choosing between sections/status/alphabetic, find history, 
or filter confusing. Imho it would be better to:
  * remove the "filter" entry from that menu and restore the filter dropdown 
at the top of the window like it was before.
  * Add a dropdown to the "find" text field showing the history.
  * the sort function is useful bout could be implemented even more 
powerful :) what about this:
    + Remove the dropdown.
    + instead, split the current list in two. The top half can be used to put 
any of (status, section, alphabetic) in order. Based on this the bottom part 
can show a tree:

+-----------------+
|Status     [Up  ]|
|Section    [Down]|
|Alphabetic       |
+-----------------+
| - Installed     |
|     - base      |
|         + a     |
|         + b     |
|     + networking|
| + Upgradeable   |
|                 |
+-----------------+

... maybe a simpler solution is preferable but I wouldn't keep using the 
dropdown for 2 functions, and instead using it only for sorting packages. 



-- 
Frank Van Damme