Debian Bug report logs - #54265
debconf; highlighting of buttons is ambiguous

Toggle useless messages

Message #5 received at submit@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Francesco Potorti` <F.Potorti@cnuce.cnr.it>

To: Debian GNU/Linux bug list <submit@bugs.debian.org>

Subject: debconf; highlighting of buttons is ambiguous

Date: Fri, 7 Jan 2000 11:42:57 +0100 (CET)

Package: debconf
Version: 0.2.58
Severity: normal

When installing with dselect, debconf  pops up text dialogs where it may
not be clear which is the selected item.

This is  particularly serious for  dialogs where only two  buttons exist
(for example Ok and Cancel).  In this  case, one of them is red, and the
other is blue, which does not make it clear which one is selected.

-- System Information
Debian Release: potato
Kernel Version: Linux pot 2.2.13 #6 Thu Nov 18 17:23:36 CET 1999 i686 unknown

Versions of the packages debconf depends on:
ii  fileutils       4.0k-2         GNU file management utilities.
ii  perl-5.005-base 5.005.03-4.1   The Pathologically Eclectic Rubbish Lister

Message #12 received at 54265@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Joey Hess <joeyh@debian.org>

To: 54265@bugs.debian.org

Subject: a fix

Date: Thu, 13 Jan 2000 16:29:30 -0800

I have a fix for this bug: make the color of an unselected button be the
same color as the window it is in. Thie removes the ambiguity. 
Dialog does this.

-- 
see shy jo

Message #17 received at 54265@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Joey Hess <joeyh@debian.org>

To: Ben Collins <bcollins@debian.org>, 60371@bugs.debian.org

Cc: Jim Peters <jim@aguazul.demon.co.uk>, 54265@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Re: Bug#60371: base, installation glitches (configure network, start new system)

Date: Tue, 14 Mar 2000 18:19:14 -0800

Ben Collins wrote:
> > was on YES, when it was on NO, and when I thought I said NO, it went and
> > scanned my CD-ROM again.  This confusion could be avoided by putting another
> > button on there, perhaps CANCEL (==NO).  Then it would be obvious which one
> > was highlighted (2 unhighlighted vs 1 highlighted).  I'm not an
> > unintelligent user.  If it fooled me, it will fool others.
> 
> Agreed, I ran into this problem aswell. Really confusing.

Well, you can just watch the cursor, which is always on top of the selected
button.

I have gotten this problem fixed in dialog already, by the simple method of
making the default button color the same as the window background, so it's
clear the selected button is different. Bug #54265 against whiptail
proposes the same solution, but has not yet been done.

-- 
see shy jo

Message #26 received at 54265@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Joey Hess <joeyh@debian.org>

To: 54265@bugs.debian.org

Subject: do you _ever_ indend to do anything about this bug?

Date: Sat, 2 Jun 2001 21:33:36 -0400

This bug report has been open for over a year. It has a very simple fix
-- a fix which was applied to whiptail's sister program, dialog, long
ago and is proven to work fine.

This bug has been reported multiple times by different people. Many of
them run into it in the very first stages of installing a new Debian
system, when confusing issues like this can hit a user the hardest.

This bug has the potential to confuse a user into making incorrect
choices, with bad security implications -- things like leaving shadow
passwords off. As such, I am going to make sure *something* is done
about it before woody ships.

(This bug might not even be a bug in whiptail, on reflection -- it looks
like it might be a bug in newt instead since the boot-floppies have the
same issue. But I don't know the code, this is the kind of thing a
package mantainer has to make the call on. Anyway, whiptail or newt,
it's the same source package.)

This bug has been ignored by you (as far as I can tell from the logs)
from the day it was reported.

So, do you _ever_ indend to do anything about this bug? Or should
debconf simply stop using whiptail?

-- 
see shy jo

Message #31 received at 54265@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Joey Hess <joeyh@debian.org>

To: David Whedon <dwhedon@gordian.com>, 99652@bugs.debian.org, 54265@bugs.debian.org

Cc: Colin Walters <walters@cis.ohio-state.edu>

Subject: Re: Bug#99652: dialog boxes confusing - active choice not clear

Date: Sat, 2 Jun 2001 21:48:12 -0400

Here's a patch against newt that would fix it:

--- newt.c~	Sat Jun  2 21:37:00 2001
+++ newt.c	Sat Jun  2 21:37:37 2001
@@ -71,7 +71,7 @@
 	"black", "lightgray",			/* window fg, bg */
 	"white", "black",			/* shadow fg, bg */
 	"red", "lightgray",			/* title fg, bg */
-	"lightgray", "red",			/* button fg, bg */
+	"black", "lightgray",			/* button fg, bg */
 	"red", "lightgray",			/* active button fg, bg */
 	"yellow", "blue",			/* checkbox fg, bg */
 	"blue", "brown",			/* active checkbox fg, bg */

Screenshot: http://kitenet.net/~joey/tmp/whiptail.png (expires in 2
weeks or so)

This bug could be reassinged to newt and merged with bugs #54265,
#60855, and #61150.

-- 
see shy jo

Message #40 received at 54265-done@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Enrique Zanardi <ezanardi@id-agora.com>

To: 99652-done@bugs.debian.org, 54265-done@bugs.debian.org, 60855-done@bugs.debian.org, 61150-done@bugs.debian.org, 105483-done@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Fixed in newt 0.50.17-7

Date: Wed, 12 Dec 2001 14:13:24 +0000

This bug has been fixed in newt 0.50.17-7.

	Thanks,
-- 
Enrique Zanardi					ezanardi@id-agora.com

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