Notes...that flash by and are gone...(was Re: any good audio/video editing apps in macports?)

[Ian Wadham]

On 25/02/2013, at 12:54 PM, Jeremy Lavergne wrote:
> There are issues on all fronts: crown job updates, distributed installs, etc. No one size fits all :-)

Notes that flash by are one of  my pet (only) gripes in Macports.  May I suggest:

4) Macports remembers, on a temp file, which ports in the run had notes,
    then, at the end, puts out a reminder about the "port notes" command
    and a list of the ports that might require follow-up action, assuming you
    have not covered all those notes after earlier Macports runs.

Would that cover all bases?  (Sorry, dunno what a "crown job update" is.)

I am considering doing something like that in the Macports GUI I am
working on.

> 
> Craig Treleaven <ctreleaven at cogeco.ca> wrote:
>> Jim likely missed some important info while installing kdenlive but 
>> it is easy to see how it happened.  If you look at the rdeps for 
>> kdenlive, there are _270_ lines!  I don't know how many of those 
>> dependencies use Notes to inform the user of some important fact or 
>> other.  I *do* know that they scroll by very quickly in the midst of 
>> what may be a long, unattended install.  Important information is 
>> interspersed amongst reams of output that requires no action.

This was my biggest problem on first installing Macports 20 months
ago, when there were fewer binary packages.  The first port I asked
for was kdegames4, but first came qt4-mac and all ITS dependencies
(i.e. large parts of Linux).  Those took all night … and I had to sleep.

Again, a warning about how many dependencies need to be built
could be produced right at the start by Macports, with options to
proceed or start again another time.  I certainly plan to do something
like that in the Macports GUI I am looking at.

>> Right now, some ports use basic text formatting to try to draw 
>> attention to these messages (lines of asterisks, etc).  That's good, 
>> but could we do more?
>> 
>> Options:
>> 1) Make users acknowledge messages:  ie, "Press any key to proceed". 
>> (Shades of CPAN!)  My take:  please God, no!!!
>> 
>> 2) Make such messages stand out more:  use more distinct visual cues 
>> such as colour or font.  Could definitely help but I don't know what 
>> is supported by all the versions of Terminal.  (Let alone other apps 
>> or remote connections.)  What do others think?
>> 
>> 3) Deliver the messages in another manner:  eg, cause them to open in 
>> TextEdit or a browser window.  I think a few lines of Applescript 
>> would be enough to create a new window and display all the Notes 
>> messages from an install.  (We would even have the option to use rtf 
>> or html to format the messages to improve delivery.)  The user would 
>> essentially have an action list after the install.  Drawbacks: 
>> doesn't work for ssh-type connections to remote machines.  I think 
>> this could be very helpful
>> 
>> Unfortunately, I lack most of the skills to actually implement 
>> anything like this.  :-(
>> 
>> Thoughts?
>> 
>> Craig

All the best, Ian W.