useability for dummies

[Mikus Grinbergs]

On Wed, 21 Jun 2006 08:33:56 -0400 Jeff Johnson <n3npq at mac.com> wrote:
>
> On Jun 21, 2006, at 12:33 AM, Mikus Grinbergs wrote:
>
> >
> > At the least, 'smart' ought to have an option "keep going, don't
> > abort" (usable even by dummies) that would install the remaining
> > packages (if downloaded and approved, and with their dependencies
> > met) even if some packages in an 'apply' batch had problems.
> >
>
> Would you expect "rm -rf /" run as non-root to continue even if "/"
> could not be removed?
>
> Continuing in spite of known installation failures might easily break
> more than "rm -rf /" run as non-root.

Please note what I said:  "install the __remaining__ packages, if
downloaded and *approved*".  In my post I was not advocating that
"known failures" be installed (though personally I am in favor of
offering that capability, too -- AS AN OPTION).


My reason for posting was that 'smart' held back 30-odd packages
that did __NOT__ have "known failures", just because some other
packages had been built sloppily.  Please, give me the ability
to "hold back" only those packages which have problems, but to
continue processing those packages which do __NOT__ have problems.

The existing implementation of 'smart' caused me to expend additional
time and effort to install those 30-odd "good" packages.  I'm used
to 'apt-get -m', which saves me that additional time and effort.
Why can't 'smart' do likewise ?


mikus


p.s.  If I key in 'rm -f', I expect the result to be __my__
      responsibility.  The existing 'smart' has chosen the
      equivalent of not honoring a 'rm' command, were there
      even one non-owned file present.  That may be "safe",
      but it leaves work undone.  Being faced with sloppy
      repositories and sloppy packages, I personally would
      like to "get work done anyway".  If 'smart' requires
      the world to be "perfect", it does not meet my needs.