Re: Validated HTML/CSS

[Jeff Waugh <jdub perkypants org>]

<quote who="digitect mindspring com">

> Since my ability to contribute to the backend/implementation stuff is
> about nil, I figured I'd try to create a valid HTML4/CSS2 template in
> case it might be helpful:
>   http://www.mindspring.com/~digitect/gnome/v2/0-0-2.html

Great! Great!

Okay, here are some comments I have on the current design - random stuff
I've thought about when playing with the mockups we have so far.

  - Why is the sidebar block built with the page background? Couldn't we use
    a noice div or something? ("What is MS using on their sidebars?", he
    asks, not quite believing his own question.) 
    
    I say this because I think it would be cool to change/remove this in
    different areas. For example, we'd remove it on the main news page, we
    could change it to have the gnome feet background on d.g.o, etc.
    Basically just more flexibility. :)

  - That orange line is *really* orange, so is the red on the initial-tables
    version. Perhaps we could use subtler colours here?

  - I think Steve's latest gnome foot is cool, because it's correctly
    transparent - ie. doesn't use colours from stuff behind it, so we can
    change the top bar as much as we want. 'twould be nice if this were done
    with PNG alpha, so we still had cutesy shadows, etc.

That's all I can think of when being interrupted and stuff. ;)

> I suppose I could work it up for NS4 using tables if that would be
> useful

Yes please. ;)

> or I can do spend time on graphics (backgrounds, icons, whatever). I
> cleaned up the GNOME foot logo (again) and have several more background
> images almost ready to go, too.

There's a bunch of great images I'd like to use for d.g.o on Garrett's site.
He's waaay happy to have his images used, too. :)

[ Related: I'd love to have a colophon link on every page. That would be so
cool, and really good for publicity of artists and projects we've worked
with on our site. ]

> Something else I'd like to see in static form soon is a static style
> sheet and test page that specifies/displays most of the HTML everybody
> will need. Anybody know if the documentation folks have something like
> this as a start? Or should we start fresh? Is this even needed?!

Not sure, but this is fully useful. If this is your area, jump in fast and
kick ass! :) Having a really solid stylesheet for the site will go a long
way towards documenting a style guide for publishing stuff, which will help
enormously when people find out it's not so hard to put their pages up
there!

> Dunno how my capabilities fit into what else is being done... if you
> have any suggestions for what I can do to help, please toss suggestions
> my way. Thanks.

If you can construct and polish the 'shell' of the site, and the stylesheets
for html display, that would be an enormously helpful contribution. We may
end up having the coolest xml publishing system, but if it ends up looking
like ass, no one will come and look at it. ;)

Thanks heaps, Steve!

- Jeff

-- 
   "The ability to procrastinate is what separates us from the machines."   
                     - Chris Gregory, Desktop Magazine