> From: Skip Cave
>
> Skip says:
>
> Actually, I have no preference for colored or un-colored symbols in the
> text. PackRat suggested in his post to use a red exclamation point for
> "need to know" topics, so that is what I implemented. Since most all of
> J consists of symbols, we just need a symbol that will stand out
> against
> all of the symbols already in the text. Color can help that, but it
> isn't necessary. The symbol just needs to be markedly different than
> the other ASCII symbols on the page.
The points on this issue that Ian makes in this thread and Dan's makes on
Vocabulary/Discussion resonate with my evolving thoughts on the use of icons.
The red exclamation mark was "scary" (and probably intrusive). If we are to use
an icon it should preferably be a widely recognized one e.g. {i} the
"information" symbol (see Vocabulary/Discussion).
However I'm increasingly of the opinion that we don't need icons. Writing down
my vision of our target audience[1] helped clarify in my mind that "pandering"
too much to the reader isn't necessary. I'm thinking that hyperlinked words,
perhaps with the use of mouse-over text pop-ups, might be the way to go. As Dan
points out - it works for Wikipedia!
> Just hyperlinking words and phrases in the text doesn't give the novice
> enough information to know whether they should follow the link or not.
> Som elinks are just "nice-to-know" stuff. and some are "must know". We
> need a good way for a reader to be able to distinguish between the two.
It would be possible to use CSS styles to mark these different types of links
if desired (e.g. background colour/outlined/dotted border etc).
> I still haven't figured out how to hyperlink that symbol to a new
> page,
> but I can at least get the pop-up text to work. Anyone know how to
> hyperlink graphics in moin moin and still have a pop-up text? Or, we
> can just hyperlink the actual text word or phrase, and then use the
> footnote symbol to indicate the "must know" or "nice t know" issues.
> The
> pop-up text on the graphic can still be used to give brief hints about
> the concept that is footnoted.
Syntax for linking graphics with popup text:
[[link|{{link to graphic}}|title=popup text]]
Syntax for textual hyperlinks with popup text:
[[link|displayed text|title=popup text]]
[1]
IMO this is the target audience that the project is trying to reach:
A newcomer to J has been "hooked" enough to try and write some code. They have
a specific task in mind and think they know which primitive will help. They
look up the primitive in the wiki Vocabulary to see if they are right and if so
how to use the primitive. Their background isn't necessarily programming, but
they probably have some previous experience with programming languages.
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