[Qgis-developer] Re: ideas for developpers)

[Martin Dobias]

On Sat, May 31, 2008 at 5:26 AM, Tim Sutton <tim at linfiniti.com> wrote:
>>
>> I don't know C++ yet, so now I can improve Plugin Installer and add the
>> features:
>>  - the version column as you said
>>  - the column with status indicator: upgradable/new in repository
>>  - checking for updates and for news in repositories on demand and also
>>   when QGIS is starting.
>
> I prefer to move away from column style UI which I think is not so friendly.
> To me it would be better to expand the detailed item delegate I wrote for
> the C++ plugin manager to include a place next to each plugin title to
> indicate if new versions are available. When QGIS starts we should check
> background thread when qgis starts go off and see if new plugins are
> available and give the user a 'soft notification' (like an indicator on the
> status bar that when clicked will open the manager and download updates).

Right, approach without columns looks to be more user friendly, a good
example is firefox plugin manager...
Though I'm not sure if we're able to put all these enhancements to
trunk until feature freeze.

>> Someday this code might be attached to the Plugin Manager (when I learn
>> C++!),
>> but before 0.11 release I can implement this only in the Plugin installer.
>> So what do you think about it? And what about removing the Plugin
>> Installer
>> item from the Plugins menu and launching it directly from the Manager?
>> Tim, can you implement this and do you think it's suitable?
>
> I would very much like to unite the C++ and python managers. As Martin says
> the main issue is .zip extraction support in Qt, but Im sure this can be
> resolved with a bit of googling.

We can do the unification, but still leave the python plugins
installer in python - it's possible to bind python and c++ code
without actually need of complete rewrite in c++.

Martin