Berin Loritsch wrote:
More than one person is adamant about Framework being under the products section. While I disagree, I can also understand the position. Nevertheless we are left with a real need that isn't being satisfied with the current site.
Things that are supposed to be for the component writers are buried in the Merlin docs--this is not intuitive. If I need to know how to write a component (new user hat on) I would not think to click on "Merlin" instinctively. I know there are no formal specs, but there is the "Specifications" and "Systems" sections under the "Merlin" umbrella. These together would suffice enough to define an Avalon X (whatever version number you choose)--but that is only meant as a suggestion for now.
My proposal is to place a link under the "Planet" section for "Systems"
and "Specifications"--you can even have one link for both, I don't mind a bit.
Now, another very important thing that the front page is missing is detail. I'm of the opinion news should be on the front page, but that is not really what I'm after. Since the user is left needing to guess what all the links are really going to get them, I suggest you take advantage of the "alt" tag to provide some tooltips. The tooltips need to include what they are going to find under the link.
For example, what are facilities? That was the closest thing I could think of when I was looking for Framework, but they appear to be extensions to Merlin. The tooltips should give the user a good hint on what it is that they are going to see if they follow the link.
The systems link should refer to framework specifically along with any other of the systems that are considered important.
Icons look nice and all, but they don't necessarily convey meaning alone. People need to see them associated with something before they can get a meaning from the icon. That's why the text is so important, and it just isn't being used to its full advantage.
Let me play "stupid idiot" for a second (some say I do it really well ;-)
I'm a user of cocoon or james and parts of the site says: cocoon depends on the Avalon framework. And I wonder, what is that?
So, I go up to google and I type "avalon framework", the first link is
http://avalon.apache.org/framework/
well, sounds about right, doesn't it?
I click on it and this redirects me to
http://avalon.apache.org/products/runtime/reference/component/lifecycle/index.html
where it says (I'm not joking!):
"Lifecycle management concerns the process of incarnation, runtime management, and etherialization"
Etherialization?
[At this point, the poor user is left with the quest of deciding what the heck he's looking at and, more important, understanding what happened to that useful PDF tutorial that his friend was talking about]
Well, maybe I'll find the documents in the distro... hmmm, no wait! there is not even a link on where to download the damn thing!
It's gone! help!
So he writes an email to the [EMAIL PROTECTED] or [EMAIL PROTECTED] (if not directly to me!) asking what happened.
- o -
The current committers of the avalon project have the rights to deal with the present and future of the project, but they have no rights to change the past, especially if so many projects and users depend on it.
It's that simple.
Give us back the framework!
-- Stefano.
smime.p7s
Description: S/MIME Cryptographic Signature
