Pirut: Edit -> Repositories mock-up.

[Jeremy Katz]

(Note: you really don't have to send the mail directly to me.  I read
basically everything on the list)

On Sun, 2007-07-08 at 21:08 +0530, Debarshi 'Rishi' Ray wrote:
> http://debarshiray.multiply.com/journal/item/82
> 
> I have finished designing the Edit -> Repositories dialog. Although
> the primary objective was to use it for my offline updating tool
> (https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/SummerOfCode/2007/DebarshiRay), I am
> also keen to contribute this to Pirut.

The problem here is that you've started designing from doing a mock-up,
not by looking at the use-cases that you're trying to solve and then
going from there.  Mockups are helpful, but not necessarily the first
step to take.  So, trying to brain-storm a little on Monday morning on
some of the quick and abbreviated use cases for graphical repo
editing...

1) Jim is getting more involved in Fedora and wants to enable the
updates-testing repository so that he can be involved in testing
updates.  Also the disable case here.
2) John has a local mirror that he prefers to use for getting his Fedora
updates and would like to point directly at it rather than the mirror
list.
3) Sue read about some new software that's available from $vendor and
would like to add their repo so that she can install and try it out.
4) $vendor provides a repo file on their website and would like to have
it be easy for end-users to add that to their configs
5) Sally is a power-user and likes to micro-manage the details of the
repository configuration. 
6..X) Probably some more :)

Of these, the first three are all things that are going to be pretty
sensible and fit in with the target audience of pirut.  The fourth
really isn't and so it's probably not worth trying to look at Sally's
needs.

And then from the actual use cases, moving on to prototypes and mockups
is reasonable.

So, looking at your mockup with the above in mind leads to some
questions
* As Rahul said, what's the real use case for making changes but not
saving them?  I think that ends up being a bit more of a power-user
thing and probably more confusing than not for pirut
* The authentication tab seems likely to be a bit of micro-management.
Also, even if there's a good case for the user to want to care, why is
it separate and global rather than per-repo?  Especially as the gpgkey
bits are all generally set on a per-repo basis 
* What's the difference between Add and Add CDROM?  A repo is a repo,
and distinguishing between where they come from is going to be a little
painful.  Especially as a repo can have both URLs and a way to access it
via media (add mediaid= to the repo config)
* What's a channel?  It says it's a repository manager but then seems to
be dealing with something that's channels?

Jeremy