Tweaking Setup.exe's UI

["Lee Maschmeyer" <lee_maschmeyer at wayne dot edu>]

Hi all,

I've seen some mention of making the Cygwin installer more Windows-like. 
While this is by no means agreed upon as a goal, I believe it wouldn't take 
very many changes to achieve. I'm blind and obviously can't speak for 
sighted people, but I can tell you how most of us blinks work most of the 
time and we can see how many of you get distressed. :-)

To see this model in action, "run" a large folder such as c:\windows. 
Maximize the window and choose the Details view from the View menu. The 
result, when applied to Cygwin Setup, would have the following 
characteristics:

1. Along with being able to tab among buttons, be able to tab to the list of 
packages.

2. Once there, using the up and down arrows highlights the current line and 
moves that highlight up and down by one line.

3. Using the PageUp and PageDown keys moves by one screen. Clicking on the 
ends of the scrollbar also moves by one screen.

4. Only one package description at a time would be visible. This is the 
description for the highlighted package, and it would appear on the bottom 
line of the window. (We have keys to read the bottom line so we don't lose 
our place.) This gives nearly the whole line for the description, 
eliminating the need for left and right scrolling.

5. The preceding makes sense for the Full view. As is currently the case in 
the other views, the list would actually be in the form of a treeview, such 
as the left pane in Windows Explorer. Clicking on the plus sign next to a 
category would expand it. When one tabs to the list, the right arrow would 
also expand the category and the left arrow collapse it.

6. The spacebar could be used to cycle among the action choices (default, 
install, etc).

IMHO, pop-ups for clipped items should be avoided; hence the display area on 
the bottom line should be as long as possible.

Would this give everybody the information they need? Would the format be at 
least as convenient as the current one? Would anything be lost?

HTH,

--
Lee Maschmeyer
<lee_maschmeyer@wayne.edu>

"Be kind to your fur-bearing friends,
For a skunk may be somebody's brother."
    --Fred Allen



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