Re: [OT] Get users educated, was: Re: Windows and DLLs

["Jesse D. Sightler" <jsight pair com>]

-----Original Message-----
From: Nils Philippsen <nils@wombat.dialup.fht-esslingen.de>
To: Jesse D. Sightler <jsight@pair.com>
Cc: Tim Moore <tmoore@tembel.org>; gnome-list@gnome.org
<gnome-list@gnome.org>
Date: Sunday, October 04, 1998 6:41 AM
Subject: Re: [OT] Get users educated, was: Re: Windows and DLLs

>On Sat, 3 Oct 1998, Jesse D. Sightler wrote:
[snip]
>> Yeah, but that isn't the error message received.  The error message is
that
>> file /usr/lib/gpackge.so.1 and a dozen or so other filenames are all
>> required by package foobar.billy.rpm.  And those messages come while
>> upgrading gpackage.rpm.
>>
>> Doesn't it seem a bit needlessly confusing to give users messages that
>> "upgrading" a package will cause problems because apps need the old
version?
>
>You're right-- It would be 'nicer' to have "upgrading this would break
>things, because packages blah.rpm, blub.rpm and foobar.rpm need the old
>version of this package 'gpackagelib-1.0-1'." the current text could be
>spit out with --geekmode :-) as command line option.

Agreed.  I just hope that the upgrade versions of Distributions are smart
enough to handle this appropriately as well.

[snipped some more]
>> That's certainly a different philosophy than that of most American's.  :)
>> Seriously, most trucks here ARE automatic, and very few people bother
>> reading docs (actually reading docs usually makes for a good joke here
<g>).
>>
>And sometimes they spread boiling hot coffee over their legs and sue
>McDonalds for their stupidity. Since this "event" on every cup of coffee
>(at least those I drunk in my holidays where I was in Canmada and the USA)
>I could read that it is (or may be) very hot. Not that I knew this before.
>But at least no one can sue McDonalds again for this

Not true.  Anyone can sue McDonalds for anything.  And really, that was the
heart of the McDonalds case from what I have read.  McDonalds was sued for
ridiculous reasons, and then responded by attempting to settle out of court
with an offer of less than a tenth of the woman's doctor bills.

Now, I won't say that the final court decision was right, and I certainly
despise the waste of hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of government
dollars on the whole situation, but the fact of the matter is that McDonalds
suffered due to very poor decisions on their part.  There were many other
things that they could have done to avoid the whole situation.

Remember, most of these ridiculous suits lose, its only the few that succeed
that we hear about.  And thanks to the relative ease with which people can
sue, there are quite a few that slip through the cracks here.  But this
getting way off-topic... :)

>> >> IOW, this aspect of "upgrading" is needlessly confusing and archaic,
>> IMHO.
>> >
>> >Use a frontend.
>>
>> I have never seen a front end that would solve this particular kind of
>> problem.  That sorry excuse for an RPM front-end "GLINT" definately
>> wouldn't.  :)  Although, I will say that some of the newer GNOME-based
>> front-ends for RPM appear to be somewhat promising.
>
>Oh, there are some frontends, never actually tried one of them (modulo
>glint) for reasons that might be obvious to the reader :-). You're free to
>do one by yourself, though :-).


Yeah, that's kind of what I thought.  The only way to get a good one right
now is to build it yourself.  gRPM may get there eventually though (maybe
I'll take a look at the source sometime later this week).

-----------------
Jesse D. Sightler
http://www3.pair.com/jsight/