Package manager: available packages not listed

[vidrep]

hrev48213 x86_64 Open Haiku Depot application Options -->check "show available packages" and "show installed packages" - list populated for all packages (screenshot1) Options -->uncheck "show installed packages" - nothing listed (screenshot2)

[vidrep]

hrev48213 x86_gcc2 Similar to 64 bit, except only "featured packages" are shown when "show available packages" is checked. (screenshot3 and screenshot4)

[stippi]

Well, an empty list of "featured packages" is not ideal, sure. But it probably means that either none of the currently "featured" packages are available for your architecture, or you have already installed all of them. The point of the "featured" packages list is to be some sort of welcome screen which recommends packages to install. It will not recommend packages which you have already installed, hence the featured packages page only shows when you have not checked "Show installed packages". I see only two solutions: Show a message "There are no featured packages, or you have installed them all already." Or switch to the package list view when there are no featured packages to recommend. Something else? What do you think?

[vidrep]

The architecture is x86. I have not installed any of the featured packages - only the base install. When both "show available packages" and "show installed packages" are selected in options, it shows both active and available packages, which is as it was before the latest changes. However, when only "show available packages" is selected, the list is empty - no available packages or featured packages. Shouldn't it show all currently installed packages, as it did before? How about three selections in the options list - "Available packages", "featured packages" and "installed packages", with "featured packages" as the default listing when opening package manager?

[stippi]

Replying to vidrep:

The architecture is x86. I have not installed any of the featured packages - only the base install. When both "show available packages" and "show installed packages" are selected in options, it shows both active and available packages, which is as it was before the latest changes.

Yes.

However, when only "show available packages" is selected, the list is empty - no available packages or featured packages. Shouldn't it show all currently installed packages, as it did before?

Well, when "Show installed packages" is not checked, it should not show currently installed packages. It should show available packages only. However, do you think it is useful to show hundreds, in the future thousands, of available packages in a list view? The recent changes have the purpose to reduce what HaikuDepot initially shows to something useful. Now, I agree, an empty list of "featured packages" is not useful. I am just trying to make you understand what the recent changes try to accomplish.

How about three selections in the options list - "Available packages", "featured packages" and "installed packages", with "featured packages" as the default listing when opening package manager?

No, I don't want the user to have to configure showing available packages. The featured packages automatically shows search results from all available packages as soon as you change search parameters (category, depot, search terms).

We just need to figure out why the list is empty for you (it may also be caching related) and then we can think about what behaviour would be more useful than showing an empty list, in case there really are no featured packages to recommend on start up.

[vidrep]

Replying to stippi:

However, when only "show available packages" is selected, the list is empty - no available packages or featured packages. Shouldn't it show all currently installed packages, as it did before?

Well, when "Show installed packages" is not checked, it should not show currently installed packages. It should show available packages only. However, do you think it is useful to show hundreds, in the future thousands, of available packages in a list view? The recent changes have the purpose to reduce what HaikuDepot initially shows to something useful. Now, I agree, an empty list of "featured packages" is not useful. I am just trying to make you understand what the recent changes try to accomplish.

The list view doesn't necessarily have to display thousands of packages when the option is already there to select by category. At any rate, the problem that exists now is an empty list view of "available packages". The only way to see what is available is to select "available and installed" together to get a list of both active and available packages. I know this is still a work-in-progress situation. All I can do is report what is happening.

[vidrep]

Most of my suggestions appear to have been implemented in hrev48565. Another suggestion would be to show "Only Featured packages" and "Available Packages" as the default selection when first opening the application. Otherwise, this ticket can be closed. Thanks!

[stippi]

Not showing installed packages was the previous default and there were problems with this choice and complaints (other tickets). So I won't change that back. Closing ticket.