useability for dummies

[Gustavo Niemeyer]

> > > what to change to get this done.)  For 'smart', I found in the
> > > depths of the wiki a description of 'smart config --set
> > > rpm-check-signatures=false'.  Haven't tried it, but sounds like
> > > it should work.
> >
> > Was it as deep as inside the "Configuration Options" page, which
> > is referenced in the "Documentation" section of the main page,
> > and which happens to contain a section named "RPM specific"
> > where this is referred to?

> Note my subject line.  Would a "dumb user" know to go to a wiki,
> and that the "invalid signature" referred to by the 'smart' error
> pop-up is referenced on the "Configuration Options" page ?

A dumb user wouldn't know what rpm signatures are.

> I myself did NOT know enough to go looking there.  What I did was
> search the wiki (is its URL given by 'smart --help' ?) for the
> text string 'signature'.  One of the hits was on the "Configuration
> Options" page.

The option is there documented. It's linked from the main page, with a
reasonable enough name that you were able to find it by searching.

> The point of my post was that for people who have been working with
> 'smart' for a long while, it is second nature to refer to the wiki.
> [And they have a good mental idea of how to navigate to specifics.]
> Whereas someone who is trying to use 'smart' to download and install
> the newest packages from a repository -- but seeing his 'apply'
> attempt fail to complete -- it in my opinion will be more by chance
> than by directed thinking that this "dumb user" would end up seeking
> information specifically from the "Configuration Options" page.

For this kind of user the distribution should be shipping with Smart
pre-configured. They have no idea about what a package signature is,
or even what Smart or Package Management is.

> Once again:  'smart --help' does not even mention 'smart config'.

It's not supposed to be there. "dumb users" that see it in --help
could do nothing else besides screwing up their systems using it.
Intelligent ones will read the documentation which lists what are the
actual options that may be set, and what their meaning is, and will
complain to the author about the missing entry in smart --help
command, and explain how they've found the meaning of these options
in a "hidden place" inside the *documentation* of the software.

You're, of course, welcome to help Christoph Thiel and write good
documentation for it in the man page as well.

-- 
Gustavo Niemeyer
http://niemeyer.net