1278341 - Bootstrap's "Please choose the version of Firefox you want to build" prompt has so much text, its list of options are scrolled offscreen

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Firefox Build System :: General, defect)

Description

[Daniel Holbert [:dholbert]]

STR:
 1. Run the one-line-setup script from https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Developer_guide/Build_Instructions/Mac_OS_X_Prerequisites

i.e. run this command:
curl https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/raw-file/default/python/mozboot/bin/bootstrap.py > bootstrap.py && python bootstrap.py

 2. Step through the commands until you get to the "Firefox for Android" question.

ACTUAL RESULTS:
If you're using a default-sized Mac terminal window, you'll see this prompt in your terminal:
===========
3. Firefox for Android

Note: (For Firefox for Android)

The Firefox for Android front-end is built using Java, the Android
Platform SDK, JavaScript, HTML, and CSS. If you want to work on the
look-and-feel of Firefox for Android, you want "Firefox for Android
Artifact Mode".

Firefox for Android is built on top of the Gecko technology
platform. Gecko is Mozilla's web rendering engine, similar to Edge,
Blink, and WebKit. Gecko is implemented in C++ and JavaScript. If you
want to work on web rendering, you want "Firefox for Android".

If you don't know what you want, start with just "Firefox for Android
Artifact Mode". Your builds will be much shorter than if you build
Gecko as well. But don't worry! You can always switch configurations
later.

You can learn more about Artifact mode builds at
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Artifact_builds.

Your choice:
===========

It is 100% unclear what the valid choices are for "Your choice". E.g. "No" or a blank response are not accepted.  IN FACT, you're supposed to pick 1, 2, or 3; those correspond to options that are listed at the top of this prompt. But only "3. Firefox for Android" fits in the terminal, and the other options are pushed offscreen because there's so much text.  So, the one option that's visible ends up just looking like a title of some sort.

EXPECTED RESULTS:
The choices should be listed closer to the actual prompt, so they're more likely to be visible alongside the prompt. And, there should perhaps be less text in the explanation anyway, so that the whole explanation can be visible & readable without need for scrolling/resizing.

Comment 1

[Daniel Holbert [:dholbert]]

Attachment: screenshot (totally unclear what the user should type after "Your choice")

Here's a screenshot of approximately what this prompt looks like, for people running the bootstrap script on a Mac.

(I took the screenshot on my Linux machine, but the terminal in my screenshot is the same size as the default terminal size on Mac, at least on intern Jonathan Chan's brand new Mac machine.)

Comment 2

[Daniel Holbert [:dholbert]]

Looks like this text was added in bug 1221200, mentored by nalexander.

nalexander, see the attached screenshot for the problem here.  (1/2/3 choice-listing is pushed offscreen by all the text.) Could you perhaps take this, or suggest an appropriate rewriting/reordering of this prompt which someone else could implement?

Comment 3

[Nick Alexander :nalexander [he/him] (PTO Feb 24-March 3)]

(In reply to Daniel Holbert [:dholbert] from comment #2)
> Looks like this text was added in bug 1221200, mentored by nalexander.
> 
> nalexander, see the attached screenshot for the problem here.  (1/2/3
> choice-listing is pushed offscreen by all the text.) Could you perhaps take
> this, or suggest an appropriate rewriting/reordering of this prompt which
> someone else could implement?

Hmm.  I think we should move the note up, so that the choices and the prompt are co-located.  We might also move the note into the artifacts page, or otherwise separate this.  Alternately, we use $PAGER to display some of the "getting started" stuff.

I'm not going to get to this; redirecting to chmanchester.

Comment 4

[Chris Manchester (limited bugmail, email directly)]

Nick's suggestion sounds reasonable. The relevant text is in python/mozboot/mozboot/bootstrap.py

Comment 5

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/mozilla-inbound/rev/b0724a9e58bf
Keep track of unused tiles in determining TextureClientPool size instead of overall size r=jnicol

Comment 6

[Daniel Holbert [:dholbert]]

gw280, looks like you typo'd a bug number for some other bug...

Comment 7

[Carsten Book [:Tomcat]]

(In reply to Daniel Holbert [:dholbert] from comment #6)
> gw280, looks like you typo'd a bug number for some other bug...

yeah and it also got now backed out for crashes like https://treeherder.mozilla.org/logviewer.html#?job_id=32072598&repo=mozilla-inbound

Comment 8

[Pulsebot]

Backout by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/mozilla-inbound/rev/7b4b7cb665c3
Backed out changeset b0724a9e58bf for crashes in mozilla::layers::TextureClientPool::ReturnUnlockedClients

Comment 9

[George Wright (:gw280) (needinfo me!)]

My bad, should have been bug 127*9*341.

Comment 10

[Daniel Holbert [:dholbert]]

Cool. I'll mark comments 5 up through this comment as "typo", so they don't distract as much from the actual bug here. Please be sure to update the bug number when re-landing. :)

Comment 12

[Bill Gianopoulos [:WG9s]]

Attachment: patch

Comment 13

[Bill Gianopoulos [:WG9s]]

Attachment: bug1278341.patch

Fix typo in checkin-comment.

Comment 14

[Nick Alexander :nalexander [he/him] (PTO Feb 24-March 3)]

Comment on attachment 8894215 [details] [diff] [review]
bug1278341.patch

Review of attachment 8894215 [details] [diff] [review]:
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Thanks, I noticed this myself on Windows.

Comment 15

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/mozilla-inbound/rev/0c102e5d5478
Move choices closer to prompt in mach bootstrap. r=nalexander

Comment 16

[Carsten Book [:Tomcat]]

https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/0c102e5d5478