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Re: new GUI setup program!


From: "DJ Delorie" <dj@delorie.com>
>
> OK, folks, the big day is here - a GUI setup program!  Yup,
> point-n-click ease, pretty progress monitors, and other things that
> Windows users have come to expect.

You mean it crashes at the drop of a hat, requires three reboots
before it can finish the installation, changes all my registry
settings and file associations without asking, and sends my name,
address, favourite grocery store, bank balance, and condom size to
Doubleclick? :-)

But seriously folks...

I've just tried it out. Everything seemed to go smoothly; well done! I
particularly liked the progress indicators, with the download rate and
byte counts. I have a few comments and suggestions; I hope they're
constructive. These are all just cosmetic issues; the installation ran
perfectly.

The options on the "Select root directory" dialogue could probably do
with some explanation. It was obvious to me that it was asking me
whether the standard mount points should be text-vs-binary and
system-vs-user, but that's because I've had some experience with that
particular feature; I expect it would be totally mystifying to someone
who hadn't used Cygwin before, or even to someone who had but never
paid much attention to the mount points set up by default.

The next page was a complete mystery to me. I can only guess that it's
something to do with the download process. I checked "Use IE5
settings" because I didn't have any choice (why is it even an option
when there's no alternative? and what if I didn't have IE5?), and left
the user ID and password boxes blank because I had no idea what to put
in them, and it seemed to work.

The "Select download site" dialogue is too small (and needs a
horizontal scroll bar). Also, it might make finding the one you want a
bit easier if they were sorted. You should probably preselect a
default (probably ftp.freesoftware.com) for people who aren't familiar
with the mirrors. (I notice Sourceware's own site is no longer
included -- is this a deliberate change in policy or just an
oversight?)

You might want to consider a "total download progress" indicator, like
the one in the install phase.

Thanks for all your work!

-- 
Ross Smith <ross.s@ihug.co.nz> The Internet Group, Auckland, New Zealand
========================================================================
"C++ is to programming as sex is to reproduction. Better ways might
technically exist but they're not nearly as much fun." -- Nikolai Irgens



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