[wpkg-users] [Bug 42] add a time parameter

[bugzilla-daemon at bugzilla.wpkg.org]

http://bugzilla.wpkg.org/show_bug.cgi?id=42


Frank Lee <rl201 at cam.ac.uk> changed:

           What    |Removed                     |Added
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
                 CC|                            |rl201 at cam.ac.uk




--- Comment #16 from Frank Lee <rl201 at cam.ac.uk>  2008-02-04 22:58:20 ---

> We could start a program which tells WPKG Client to display what we want, for
> example:
> 
> <install cmd='%WPKGPATH%\wpkgMessage.exe /message "Installing Big Package..."'
> />
> <install cmd='unzip_everything.exe' /> 
> <install cmd='unzip_everything.exe' /> 
> <install cmd='%WPKGPATH%\wpkgMessage.exe /message "Installing fonts for Big
> Package..."' />
> <install cmd='instal_fonts.exe' /> 
> <install cmd='%WPKGPATH%\wpkgMessage.exe /message "Installing plugins for Big
> Package..."' />
> <install cmd='install_plugins.exe' />
> <install cmd='%WPKGPATH%\wpkgMessage.exe /message "Installing remaining files
> for Big Package..."' />
> <install cmd='install_main_program.exe' />
> <install cmd='%WPKGPATH%\wpkgMessage.exe /clear' />
> 
> 
> It looks like a clean and a very elastic solution.
> What do you think?

I think you're really trying to add comments to the install commands:

<install cmd='unzip_everything.exe' comment='Installing Big Package'/>
<install cmd='unzip_everything.exe' comment='Installing Big Package'/>
<install cmd='install_fonts.exe' comment='Installing fonts for Big Package'/>
<install cmd='install_plugins.exe' comment='Installing plugins for Big
Package'/>
<install cmd='install_main_program.exe' comment='Installing remaining files for
Big Package'/>

We could display the comment on the wpkg client - or not, according to how we
configure the wpkg client. 

We might go further and add a time:
<install cmd='unzip_everything.exe' comment='Installing Big Package'
time='20'/>

I realise that the time taken for a package to install is a bit of an unknown
and affected by many factors. However, a user whose machine tells him it is
installing Office and will be 20 minutes knows he can get a coffee and do
something else. He may be a little unhappy if he has to wait 25 minutes or 30,
perhaps, but he will at least know that if he is still waiting after an hour he
should ask for help. 

(Perhaps the workstation should attempt to calculate how much faster/slower it
is than the workstation where the times were measured - that might help a
little. And for installers posted on the wiki, we can at least indicate the
name of the machine we measured the times on - if you have a fast machine you
might find that the times I measured on 'pcn88' are all about twice as long as
your workstation takes.)

As has been pointed out, the 'time' is a function of each command, not a
package, so if we add this information it should be in the
'install'/'upgrade'/'remove' parts of the file.

I propose that the client have four options regarding the 'time' display:
a) Display no information about time (rather like the current version);
b) Display "Installing package N of M", which at least gives the user some
information
c) Display comments - "Installing Big Package' 
d) Display times - "Estimated time to completion: 12 minutes"
b,c and d are not mutually exclusive.

How to get the information to the client is another matter. I would suggest
that named pipes would be the simplest solution: wpkg.js attempts to write
information about what it is doing to a named pipe and WPKG client parses this
information for display. (I think this way around works better than having WPKG
client be 'dumb' and just display what wpkg.js tells it to: one possible future
expansion is to have a "More detail" button on the client window, I guess.)

Yours,

Frank


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