Re: comments on CML 1.1.0

Eric S. Raymond
2001-04-14T20:48:16Z

Marko Kreen <marko@l-t.ee>:
> Using CML2 1.1.0 'menuconfig' on clean 2.4.3 (mach is PPro 180)
>
> Suggestions:
>
> * the 'N' should be shown as ' ' as in menuconfig - it is
> visually much better to get overview of whole screenful.
> 'Y'/'M' and 'N' are basically of 'same size' so you must look
> directly on letter to understand what it is - not good.

I've gone this one better. It's now "Y", "m", " ", so the m and y
responses are easily distinguished.

> * the menuconfig had nice shortcut: when you pressed 'm' on
> [YN] field, it put 'y' there without questions. So you could
> use only 2 keys to configure one screen: 'n/m'. this meant
> you did not need to move fingers around and think about it
> so much - big thing when you are not touch-typer...

Implemented.

> * the colors are hard to see (red/blue on black). Probably
> matter of terminal settings. I do not have any productive
> ideas tho... Probably to get best experience to as much
> people as possible the less colors are used the better.
>
> The 'blue: last visited submenu' is unnecessary. Especially
> because it later turns green... And the 'red' vs. 'green'
> thing. I guess the green should be used for 'visited entries'
> too. Now the red means like 'Doh. So I should not have
> touched this?'. Confusing.
>
> In other words: if there are too much colors, they become
> a thing that should be separately learned, not a helpful
> aid.
>
> All this IMHO ofcourse. Colors are 'matter of taste' thing
> so there probably is not exact Rigth Thing.

You make good points. In the 1.1.1, blue and yellow/brown will be gone;
it's just green for everything visited.

> Bugs/complaints:
>
> * aic7xxx is not updated (defaults: are 8/5 should be 253/5000)
> (this from arch/i386/defconfig maybe?)

Fixed.

> * 'IDE chipset support' nesting is very confusing - compare
> to menuconfig. I would say even 'wrong'...
> (eg. 'PIIXn tuning' is is under 'PIIXn support' which is not
> under 'ATA works in progress'.

Rules-file patches will be cheerfully accepted.

> * screen is redrawn after _every_ keystroke - not only in moving
> around, but even when you are on input field...

I know. The workaround is to use gnome-term, which for some reason
doesn't show this. It's tops on my longer-term to-do list.

> * input field: when there is some default and I start typing it
> should either clear it or append.

On my to-do list.
--
Eric S. Raymond

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