Re: Proposal of a new d.g.o

[Jeff Waugh <jdub perkypants org>]

<quote who="Olivier Pinçon">

> http://pestifere31415.free.fr/notes.txt
> 
> I hope that most of these changes will be accepted and applied as soon as
> possible (since I won't have spare time anymore soon).  For that purpose,
> I'd like to discuss (on #webhackers) with the core d.g.o webhackers team
> (I am oliv31415).

Replying to everything in notes.txt...

> Here are some notes about that attempt to relook d.g.o:
> 
> General considerations:
> -----------------------
> - We have not enough staff to maintain an high site activity.
> Therefore, we should try to limit things needing frequent
> update such as feature articles.
> IMHO, only the news page should be often updated.
> - There is currently no distinction between 'coding with gnome'
> and 'coding for gnome'. I tried to make such a distinction obvious
> with the sidebar.

Great, that really needed to be done.

> Overall changes:
> -------------
> - added a google search across d.g.o. It is currently ugly but works.
> Of course a real search engine across d.g.o would be fine.

I wouldn't be too fussed adding the Google search entry across all the
sites, but it would have to be done properly (fwiw, it was designed but
never put on - it was going to be another backgrounded section in the
sidebar, easy enough to do well).

> - modified makenode.pl to take sidebar headers into account.

The sidebar already has headers - sections. I would not take this patch. :-)

> - changed the copyright year at the bottom :)
> 
> - Added an 'Internals' directory, in which would be various doc
> for real GNOME hackers, that most people don't want to see.

Note that for any changes now, I wouldn't be too interested in actually
moving documents around. Fixing the navigation, great, but let's not move
documents until we've fleshed things out more (which includes library.g.o
when it goes up).

> - Removed the 'feature article' menu entry. See above for reasons.

Fairly reasonable, as long as we can still get to older, relevant ones. I
might just put these onto l.g.o.

> - I fully reorganized the 'Documentation' directory.
> This contains docs for the developer using GNOME, 
> throught its C interface or the various bindings.
> The point is, someone looking for a doc on a given topic
> doesn't know whether it is in a book, tutorial, guide or FAQ. 
> This person just knows the language or the libraries he/she uses.
> Therefore I think this organization is far better.

Don't want to move stuff around, and most of this will be assisted by
library.gnome.org. Let's leave this for the moment.

> Messy thoughts
> ----------------
> 
> A designer/artist could probably improve the use of CSS for
> a more beautiful site (www.csszengarden.com).

It's primary design motive is to be functional, not outrageous. :-) That
said, some of the bad choices made a while back will be fixed with a quick
iteration to the css.

> A link from the home page to doc/langages would be useful
> for people who are in a hurry to see the core of the site.
> 
> d.g.o should explain the GNOME development platform.
> 
> Does the "Release Team" really exist ?

Of course! How do you think we release so often and on time?! (Says the
release team lead...)

> In 'Architecture' we could make a page for
> every important part of GNOME (GTK, GDK, GLib, Bonobo ...)
> containing a description, its position in the GNOME system,
> and various links. In other parts of the site, we could link any occurrence
> of "GTK" to the GTK page for instance.

One for l.g.o.

> Perhaps we could put small flags in the doc pages, denoting
> the doc langage (en, fr, jp, korean...).

You've just walked onto a well-walked minefield. "No." ;-)

> Is there a place where we can have an overview of the *.gnome.org and
> gnome-related websites ?
> 
> Is the webhackers page (Projects/Webhackers) up-to-date ?
> Aren't some papers expired ?

No, planning to rectify these things, haven't been able to attack them with
everything else going on. My focus will primarily be on infrastructure for
the next release cycle, so...

> It should be easy to send feedback to the d.g.o webhackers.

gnome-web-list... this is the right place. :-) I'm going to put links on the
bottom of every site like the ones on http://cvs.gnome.org/viewcvs/, so it's
easy to find out who to contact, and where the site is in CVS. That'll make
things easier.

> Is the directory name "C++" problematic ?

Not really.

> A dream: easy publishing of GNOME documentation.
> ------------------------------------------------

> Any comment on that wonderful dream ?

Already on its way - library.gnome.org, coming to a GNOME server near you.
First cut should be up by the end of the weekend, if not on l.g.o, then
certainly generated up into my homedir on widget.

- Jeff

-- 
GVADEC 2004: Kristiansand, Norway                    http://2004.guadec.org/
 
  "To do: Start up a a magazine dedicated to picky grammar. Call it 'Whom
                              Weekly'." - WzDD