Re: Making websites for gnome-apps sexier

[Luis Villa <luis villa gmail com>]

On 6/10/05, Andreas Nilsson <nisses mail home se> wrote:
> >>I dare to claim that the websites for various gnome-apps needs to get
> >>sexier.
> >Yeah, the average site could stand to be nicer :) It would be nice if
> >there were a
> >gnome.org/projects/sample/ or something that included standard links
> >like where to get it, hacking tips, so on, so forth, that people could
> >copy/paste to do their own site from.
> Sure, I'll get on that one as soon as possible.

Sweet. Like I said, I would volunteer to use this and give you
feedback once you got a little something started.
 
> >[Oh, and a sexier http://gnome.org/projects/ would be a nice one-time
> >fix for someone too!]

Jeff and I have talked about this a bit on web-list, FWIW, Andreas;
don't know if you are on there or not.

> >>Right now it's a bit hard to find information on how to start hacking on
> >>your favorite gnome-app. This might lead to people intersted in
> >>contributing to a project, don't have a clue where to look. Some
> >>projects have websites on www.gnome.org/projects/, some of them are nice
> >>(the evolution site is fantastic), but some are really unmaintained and
> >>are in desperate need of updates (like the nautilus website and the one
> >>for g-conf).
> >>
> >>
> >
> >To a certain extent, we do want to centralize that information, since
> >there is so much that would be repeated, and because we want to
> >publicize hacking on many things, even things that don't really
> >need/deserve a website (like gnome-session, for example.)
> >
> >
> Perhaps both. Imagine someone surfing gnomefiles.org and finds, lets
> say, eye of gnome. Click the link that leads to the website for that
> project, tries it out and feels the need to say draw a new icon (!).  If
> there are some nice information on how to reach the developers right
> there on that site it would be really nice. But yeah, I see your point
> that it would be a lot of work to maintain websites with somewhat the
> same content for every module in gnome. A lot of stuff could probably be
> generated automaticly though.

Given that we have at this point a very poor web infrastructure
(despite discussions on how to fix that that now go back for three
years) I'd recommend against auto-generating things. Perhaps for now
the right approach is for the GFooBar template to have sections that
allow for customization, but generally offer pointers to useful
project-wide links:

Getting Involved
===========

To get involved, contact FILLMEIN

More information about getting involved with other GNOME apps (and
many tips that apply to GFooBar) can be found at
http://live.gnome.org/GettingInvolved

Debuggging
=========

In most ways, GFooBar is a typical GNOME App; you should refer to
http://developer.gnome.org/debugging for more information on debugging
it, and (more generic links).

Specific things you need to be aware of when debugging GFooBar:
FILLMEIN list

Drawing Icons
==========

All icons drawn for GFooBar should match the GNOME Icon Style Guide, <link>

If you want to draw a specific icon for GFooBar, contact our team
artist at FILLMEIN (or gnome-art-list if there is no team artist.)

(Not really sure if I'm making myself clear here, or if this would get
updated very often. I would hope so :)

> And yes, there defenetly needs to be some easier way to find the
> relevant information on how to start hacking on some project, what
> urgently needs to be fixed and stuff like that. Someone really needs to
> overlook developer.gnome.org and figure out what is outdated and if it
> is possible to make start hacking on gnome sound like fun. More on that
> later down.

Agreed that developer.gnome.org is stagnant and it is not a healthy
sign for us that no one cares to fix it.

<snip lots of positive talk about evo's website>
> I probably could go on like this for hours about the site... ;)

So incorporate some of those ideas into the template ;)

> >>It included how to get the software both via ftp and via CVS for those
> >>interested in hacking. It also included some nice screenshots and a
> >>short description of the software.
> >>
> >>I also discovered that it was really easy to alter the gedit-site to
> >>make it fit for other projects and gave the nautilus website a try...se
> >>here for my results: http://ramnet.se/~nisse/diverse/nautilus.
> >>
> >>
> >
> >Cool! Screenshot, maybe? :)
> >
> >
> What, of the page? It is right there...

No, of nautilus :) People like screenshots ;)

> >>Hopefully
> >>it will be up on the main site in a couple of days.

> >Do you need help getting it committed?
> >
> >
> Yes, I don't have cvs access of any kind. Alex asked me if I could
> maintain it and I have mailed Christian Schaller that was in charge of
> the old page...but yet no response. Should I send a tarball to you so
> you can put it there?

Yeah, I could totally take a tarball and commit it for you.
 
Luis