New Smart GUI

[Mikus Grinbergs]

> Jop and I have been working on the new smart gui.
> I am open to suggestions.


Some wishes:

  - My biggest simple complaint with the present GUI is that
    (probably because of the way I have smart set up) the 'Expand
    All' in 'View' cannot be checkmarked.

    Having done a 'Search", I have to *additionally* request
   'Expand All' - I would like to be able to omit this extra step.

  - And the "Status Area" needs to be *blanked* every time that a
    click initiates some kind of processing.  As it is, the output
    message "No interesting updates available" from 'Upgrade'
    persists inappropriately after other functions are invoked.

  - Also, I wish that the various smart windows would remember their
    sizes and positions the way I've set them.  As it is, I have to
    re-size/re-position them every time I restart 'smart --GUI'.

  - I believe that with the current implementation, when a panel
    provides a 'Close' button, sometimes when I forget and click on
    the 'X' in the Title Bar - nothing much happens.  I wish the 'X'
    would do the same thing the 'Close' button does.

  - A major complaint that is more difficult to fix is that the
    'Change Summary' panel put up by 'Upgrade all packages' (also by
    'Apply marked changes') is __read-only__.  There are times when
    I do *not* want a particular package to be upgraded.  The best
    that I can do is to make sure that "changes" are "marked", then:

      As now implemented, I have to separately go to 'View',
      checkmark 'Hide Unmarked' (and in a separate step request
      'Expand All') -- only in the resulting main panel can I
      then "unmark" the changes I do not want applied.

    It would cut out the extra steps if I could "unmark" from the
    'Change Summary' panel directly.



And a comment:

  - I greatly prefer (from a Human-Factors viewpoint) the top-level
    layout in Ubuntu Synaptic -- there is no need to go to the 'View'
    drop-down menu -- instead the selection buttons (for what is to
    be displayed in the main panel) are *always* accessible.


mikus