[Inx] hardy-inx

Peter Garrett inx-one at optusnet.com.au
Sun May 25 21:23:32 PDT 2008


On Sun, 25 May 2008 13:59:45 +1000
Andre Mangan <andrem at internode.on.net> wrote:

> Impressions on first run (boot from INX), perhaps going over old ground:
> 
> When confronted with choosing numbers as menu activators I immediately
> go to the number pad - I would imagine that other right-handed users
> would do the same.  No luck there.

This can be fixed with one line in ~/.profile I think - using the
setleds command. I will put it in the next upload, with luck. Thanks
for the reminder.

> When viewing the fractals, I know that to view the next fractal I need
> to press the spacebar.

There is a mention of "h" for help before fbi starts in the
intro/demo :)

> The browser cannot read style sheets nor files in pdf.  Should its
> limitations be announced?

I think you mean links2 -g ( xlinks). You can read most pdf files if
instead you use elinks. They will open in "fbgs" - which is the pdf part
of the "fbi" tools. The links2 browser *can* be configured to do more,
but it's not obvious. The other problem, which is insurmountable at this
stage, at least for me, is that the graphical version of links2 uses
directfb, which takes over a tty ( actually tty7) - fbi and most other
apps just can't share that directfb space.

As for style sheets, I seem to remember people saying that links2 can
be compiled with css support. I haven't looked into it though, and I
imagine that it would be limited.

I'm not anti  X :) INX is not supposed to do everything - it's
supposed to help people to lose their fear of the command-line and
console. In my view it's a bizarre fear - people deal with text all the
time, yet for some reason textual interfaces produce a reflex reaction
folowed by tantrums of the "I'm not even going to try that!" variety.

Of course, the sort of person who will even *try* INX is already a sort
of proto-geek, so it's probably a losing battle trying to get people to
think... hmmm </rant>

> To return to the Demo from browser, press Esc.

Well, yes, that gets you a menu, but "q" gets you an incredulous "Are
you sure you want to quit this marvellous browser?" message. You have
to press "q" anyway - unless your mouse is working properly with gpm,
in which case you can click the top bar near the left and click your way
out :)

> Since the primary focus is on the tutorial and the demo as secondary,
> should the tutorial menu entry have more prominence?

That's a tricky one. Yes, the tutorials should have prominence, but my
idea was to make the order of the menu sort of relaxed - the demo is
there near the top because most people have no idea that you can do
pictures, graphical browsing and even video, all without X.

Having said all of that, I agree that the tutorials are really the most
"important" part of INX. I'm thinking about ways to integrate them
better, so that people won't miss something that they might otherwise
have learnt.

> USB worked fine as did 'eject'.  The example of pressing "1" (without
> the quotes) led me to press 1 when I should have pressed 0.  Of course I
> got a warning message, silly me.  Neat!

:-)  Glad to hear that the USB thing is working for other people.

> To distinguish 0 from O, is it possible to use the 0 with the dot in the
> centre?

This behaviour is dependent on the font. It's possible to reconfigure
the console settings with

dpkg-reconfigure console-setup

If anyone wants to fiddle with this and see if they can find better
fonts, that would be interesting. Just for reference though, the zero
in INX is angular and the O is sort of rounded rectangular ... 

      versus       __
/\                     /  \         if you see what I mean.

> In the editors, Vi did not offer an explanation of escape routines.  I
> eventually found it to be 's' to get back to the command line and then
> 'm' to return to the menu.

I should make vimtutor an option on the editor choices screen... vim is
a bit scary for most people :) ( including me). I can do simple things,
and struggle through with tears in my eyes...

> Moc behaved very nicely and when the music stopped, 'q' returned me to
> the real world.

Did you notice that you can close mocp with "q" while it's playing, and
open another instance somewhere else, where it shows tha same
playlists etc.? Very nice if you surf the ttys and GNU Screen...
> 
> The shut-down sequence worked smoothly.

Yes, Hardy seems to have fixed that issue with the hang at the end.

-- 
Peter Garrett <inx-one at optusnet.com.au>



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