Optionality in Programs installed?

[lukesmithxyz]

Optionality in Programs installed?

Why not just move the feature to the end of the installer then? Something like "Congrats! You've installed all the basic necessities for a working system. Would you like to install some more optional packages? (Y/n)"

[meolar]

First, I like LARBS as it currently stands. It's very convenient to have nearly everything I use installed the way you have it. And having all the LaTeX stuff installed, time comsuming though it may be, is really useful. Also, the installation process only happens once and then I have a very usable setup.

Next, I like having both Firefox and qutebrowser (which I am using as I write). However, it was not a big deal to install the latter and fix the startup bugs in the config file (which didn't keep it from being useable anyway) if you don't feel like maintaining the config file. The vim key bindings are really nice to use.

However, I also like CecileGS's suggestion if it isn't too much work on your part to implement. Another altermative might be to add an explanation to the current choice list of what to install, so people who are in a hurry and don't care about LaTeX can choose not to install it.

Also if I may hazard another suggestion that just popped into mind; how about instead of a "offline guide" telling us what optional packages are recommended for the user, how about a "script with lines of code that you need to uncomment" in the style of Pacman's config file?

E.g. if you want to install qutebrowser in lieu of Firefox, it would be a matter of simply uncommenting the former and commenting out the latter - the user will still be forced to choose the software they want out of their own explicit volition, and most likely will also find this method to be less intrusive compared to all the other proposals made so far in this thread.

[LukeSmithxyz]

Okay thanks for the feedback. I've also gotten emails about this.

I think I'm going to remove the optional programs menu and replace it with a script that will come in the home directory of the voidrice repo. It's also double as a dependency installer for people who want to just clone the repo and use it without running LARBS (although less complete). I'm going to have to think about precisely what I want to be installed by default, but if I need public input, I'll make a new issue.

Ends up that #29 was partially caused by the options script as is, so I think that LARBS will be easier for me to maintain if I make it a more controllable post-install script anyway.