bzr-explorer-dev team mailing list archive

[Maritza Mendez <martitzam@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Sun, Sep 13, 2009 at 12:05 AM, Ian Clatworthy <
ian.clatworthy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> I'm looking to release bzr-explorer 0.8 in the next 6-18 hours. Rev 259
> is the latest revision.
>
> As this release will be the one bundled with bzr 2.0rc2 in the Windows
> installer packaged tomorrow, I'd appreciate some testing of the new
> features added, particularly the new stuff added this weekend. I'd like
> to see this version added to the OS X installer too.
>
> If you can help, here's the 0.8 Release Notes so far ...
>
> * The Welcome page has been revised to provide better guidance for
>  new users.
>
>
I think it will help first-time users get started.  It feels a little busy.
It's ok now, but I would be careful about adding much more.  (I have much
experience with this sort of problem commercially -- trying to make every
customer happy sometimes makes no one happy.)  Is there a way for
experienced users to turn the welcome tab off by default, or at least make
it come up in 'open existing location' by default?



> * The status report is automatically refreshed after actions
>  that update it, namely Add, Commit, Pull, Merge, Update,
>  Conflicts, Switch, Bind, Unbind, Revert and Uncommit.
>
>
This is great, and the option to turn it off is handy.


> * The working tree browser now provides dynamic filtering of the
>  displayed items. This makes it easy to find files you wish to
>  edit for example.
>
>
This is a killer feature.  Awesome.  I've been using it on some decent sized
trees (about 10,000 files) and it seems pretty snappy.


> * Tools > Advanced Commands action is now supported. This currently
>  launches a terminal (though it may launch 'qrun' in the future
>  once that lands in a released version of QBzr). On GNOME and KDE
>  at least, the terminal is started in the root directory of the
>  current location, if any.
>
>
On windows, this "opens" in the existing terminal being used to run 'bzr
explore.'  The first time running rev 259, opening "Advanced COmmands" and
then trying to Init in the GUI gave some strange message (I think from Qt)
about the main event loop already running, repeated in what seemed to be an
infinite loop.  Locked my machine up completely.  Had to kill the whole
session.  I have tried but failed to reproduce it.  I'll let you know if it
happens again.



> * Bazaar > Start > Initialize now launches a custom dialog by default.
>  This dialog makes it easy to set things up in commonly used
>  ways. It also automatically opens the created location on
>  completion.
>
>
I like it.  This screen may be intimidating to new users, for the same
reason that some new users seem to be confused about
trees/branches/repos/shared repos.  Some of the options here are great
time-savers (like Shared Tree) but it might create the impression that bzr
is complicated.  (I guess it can be.)  I really don't have any great
suggestions here, except to listen especially carefully to feedback from new
users.

The format selector is excellent.  This should work well for both new and
experienced users.

Time permitting, I may tweak the Branch action so it automatically opens
> the new location ala the Init action. Ditto for the Checkout action,
> though it arguably needs to be simplified to look more like the Branch
> one. Otherwise, consider Explorer 0.8 done and dusted, bar testing and
> critical/simple bug fixes.
>

I am very impressed with bzr explorer.  I use it almost every day.  It does
most of what I need.  Most of the things it does not do yet are actually
feature requests for qbzr.

~M