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

[Jan Stary]

On Feb 24 20:50:52, ctreleaven at cogeco.ca wrote:
> At 5:23 PM -0600 2/24/13, Jim Graham wrote:
> >On Sun, Feb 24, 2013 at 11:03:54PM +0000, Chris Jones wrote:
> >> On 24 Feb 2013, at 10:59pm, Jim Graham <spooky130u at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >> There is nothing wrong with KDE, as long as you properly install the
> >> dependencies it requires. My reading of this rather long thread is all
> >> of the problems would have been avoided if the OP had followed the
> >> instructions as presented to them. You cannot blame KDE for the
> >> problems that arose because they didn't.
> >
> >But as the OP in question, I didn't KNOW about any of the KDE stuff
> >AT ALL.  I didn't know that I needed this, that, and the other bit.
> >I didn't know that I needed to run other stuff first, or that macports
> >does not actually install aoo of the dependent stuff for KDE as I'd
> >assumed it did.  The errors I saw were completely alien to me.  I'd
> >never run into stuff like that before.  So excuse me if I can't read
> >minds.  Oh, and I didn't install KDE.  It was installed by something
> >else (maybe it was kdenlive, maybe something a long time ago...I don't
> >know).
> 
> 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.
> 
> 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!!!

No way.

> 2) Make such messages stand out more:  use more distinct visual cues
> such as colour or font.

No.

> 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?

That still needs me to watch the terminal closely
as the installation progresses. No.

> 3) Deliver the messages in another manner:  eg, cause them to open
> in TextEdit or a browser window.

That needs the capability to "open a window".
No way.

> 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.)

No fucking way.

> 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

> Thoughts?

How about: print all the meesages at the very end
of the whole install. That's how OpenBSD does it.