[Aptitude-devel] Bug#801310: aptitude: No letter in TUI for action "downgrade"

[Manuel A. Fernandez Montecelo]

Control: tags -1 + pending


Hi Axel,

2015-10-08 13:14 Axel Beckert:
>Package: aptitude
>Version: 0.7.2-1
>Version: 0.7.3-1
>Severity: minor
>
>If I choose to downgrade a package and go into the preview tab with "g",
>the packages have either "i A" or "i " in the first field while e.g. to
>be upgraded packages have "iu " or "iuA" and to be purged have "ipA" or
>"ip ". Shouldn't there be a letter for downgrading, too?
>
>"d" is IIRC already in use for "delete/remove but not purge".

Correct.


>So maybe
>use "v" (to be interpreted as a downwards arrow) as Manuel suggested on
>IRC. Then again, "v" is also used for "virtual" in a column nearby. So
>maybe "w" as in "doWngrade" (and looking like two arrows down if you
>have a lot of imagination ;-), as suggested by Manuel on IRC, too.

I think that 'w' is better, because of the 'v'irtual and because at
least 'w' is part of the name of doWngrade, as stated above.

If this was to be revamped, probably it would be better to have 'd' for
downgrade, 'r' for remove and for example 'L' (like the menu shortcut)
for reinstall (or the suggestion below).  But doing this now, after more
than a decade of 'd' of users seing 'd' for remove, I don't think that
it's good to do lightly, and in any case not in minor releases.

Commited to the repository, so marking as +pending.


Note for future reference / bug archaeology sessions: 'v' was suggested
in the context of the IRC conversation because one way to solve this
would be by breaking with the past and using new symbols altogether, so
that they wouldn't confuse previous users.  In that case, the suggestion
was to have an up arrow (UTF-8, or '^') for upgrades and UTF-8 down
arrow or 'v' as the natural contraposition for downgrade.

Another way would be to use action symbols like the command line (+, -,
_, etc -- as requested in other bug reports, at least in #586989).
There are no characters to request upgrades or downgrades specifically,
but maybe a new solution could be found to use only one set of actions
and symbols representing them everywhere, instead of the current two
sets.

But again, that change is not for minor releases in any case, it should
only be done if the whole way to present this information is
reconsidered as a whole, and revamped in a major way.

-- 
Manuel A. Fernandez Montecelo <manuel.montezelo at gmail.com>