Package Management Blows Goats (use cases)

[Arthur Pemberton]

On 7/31/07, Richard Hughes <hughsient at gmail.com> wrote:
> (from my blog, apologies to anyone that's read this once already)
>
> Before ideal system requirements we should talk about use cases and
> system interactions. I think this is where update systems have gone
> wrong in the past, closely integrating with the existing package system
> rather than studying the complete ideal user interactions.
>
> Feel free to disagree and correct the interactions.
>
> Boot Time Security Update
>
> Toby logs into his desktop. A notification area icon with a critical
> icon appears in the top right and a libnotify popup tells him there are
> 3 three critical security updates. The libnotify popup has three
> buttons:
> • Update now in the background
> • Always do updates automatically
> • Ignore for now
> Toby clicks the first button and the update completes in the background.
> When completed, after a few minutes, another libnotify popup appears
> telling Toby that the update was completed and after a few seconds the
> status icon disappears.
>
> Downloading an Unknown Application
>
> Suzanne wants to open a word file. She opens the software finder tool
> and types "office file" into the search box. A list of software appears,
> with OpenOffice being the top entry. She clicks the OpenOffice entry to
> highlight it, and clicks "Install now". Suzanne is not an administrator,
> but because she is locally logged in and the package is from the "fedora
> GPG signed repository" the root password is not required. A notification
> area icon appears with a downloading icon and the package manager is
> closed. When OpenOffice is installed, a libnotify popup tells Suzanne
> that the software has been downloaded and is now ready to use.
>
> Installing files automatically
>
> Simon wants to borrow the computer while Suzanne waits for OpenOffice to
> download. He uses fast-user switching to switch to a new login. He
> notices the same downloading icon in his session which indicates
> Suzannes' download is still in progress. He starts Pidgin which then
> crashes. The bug-buddy window appears which prompts him to install the
> debuginfo so a valid backtrace can be detected. He clicks yes, and a
> libnotify windows appears telling Simon that the request has been queued
> and that he will be notified when the debuginfo has been installed. When
> installed, the bug-buddy helper continues and submits a valid bug.
>
> Installing new features
>
> Suzanne switches back to her session and wants to add some clipart to
> the word file she has just opened. She clicks "Insert" and then
> "Clipart" and then a windows pops up telling her that clipart is not
> installed. She clicks "Install" and a progress bar appears and moves
> across as the clipart is downloaded and then installs. When finished,
> the dialog disappears and she chooses a picture of a cat.
>
> Comments?
>
> Richard.


The use cases seem logical and important to discuss, but why the
inflamatory thread subect?

-- 
Fedora Core 6 and proud