[psoc-2008] Week[4] Report: Tests and Squishes

[Skaman Sam Tyler]

This week has moved kind of slow. I have completed this week's goals, and
have tried to squash some bugs.

Today, i am working on the "Search by All" type of search.

The big hurdle this week is in UI design and wait times. Since CPANPLUS
takes time to fetch a few desired attributes from CPAN, I have modularized a
lot of the code that happens when the user selects a module from the main
module list view. (As of last week, when the user selected an item, she had
to wait while CPANPLUS retrieved several files from CPAN.) There are now a
few more tabs in the info pane, and only the 'Info' tab gets updated when
the user makes a selection. This sped up the selection process from about 45
seconds to less tha 1 second. Most of my time this week was used up in
testing various methods for retrieving data (threads, progressbars, etc.).
But I decided on placing a button in every tab in the info pane which
retrieves that pane's information. A typical selection process is outlined
here:

1. The user selects a module from the module list and the Info tab gets
populated immediately.

2. If the user wants to read the module's README file, they can click on the
Readme.txt tab and click on the Get README button in that tab.

3. If the user wants to populate all the tabs in the pane below the list of
modules (the info pane), they can click on the button labelled "Get Extended
Info" in the Actions tab.

I plan on adding a button to display the appropriate POD in the POD Reader
window (coming soon!).

I have also added a couple of pages to the wiki on googlecode this week. One
page lists all the CPANPLUS modules and their methods/accessors, as well as
where to get the information using the GUI and whether it is fully
implemented or not. I am using this as a checklist of all the remaining work
that needs to be done.

Another page lists ideas for future implementation. These items are to be
done after gSoC'08, and will be a roadmap for future development. They are
mainly feature requests from other people I have discussed this project
with. (There is only one so far - a pretty big undertaking!)

Look for more big decisions and big designs in the week to come!


--Skaman Sam Tyler <skamansam at gmail.com>
--http://rbe.homeip.net
--AIM:SkamanSam3
--MSN:SamuelCTyler at hotmail.com <MSN%3ASamuelCTyler at hotmail.com>
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