On Sun, May 16, 2010 at 8:37 AM, Harald Schilly <harald.schi...@gmail.com> wrote: > On May 16, 1:37 am, William Stein <wst...@gmail.com> wrote: >> It's about time http://sagemath.org got totally reworked for improved >> usability and simplicity. > > A design idea from last year is here: (you need safari or firefox, > doesn't work in ie) > > http://boxen.math.washington.edu/home/schilly/www3/ > > The main difference is that the menu is on the left and each sub-point > is always visible. That saves clicks and you always see a thematically > structured map of all pages. I'm happy to hear about some feedback or > ideas how to make it better - then I can re-implement it so that also > IE is happy. > Technically, layout is oriented on the left and there are fewer > graphics. That speeds up the page even further, download and > rendering!
Having just tried the above, I'm not convinced that such a dramatic change is a good idea right now. For starters, most of the buttons on the left aren't even visible when I load the page. Also, personally it seems odd for the buttons to be on the left, not the right. > >> And our website should have a couple randomly chosen [quotes] >> and displayed in a sidebar. > > I've started that a while ago here: http://sagemath.org/inc/quotes.shtml > as a replacement for the random links at the bottom. (It's just one > quote, but there is room for 10) That seems to be a google search that list pages that mention Sage. This should not be on the main page. What should be is some selection from http://sagemath.org/library-stories.html > >> discussion lists > > Personally, when maintaining the website, my main problem is that they > get created but nobody tells me about them. I just don't automatically > think about adding them to the page if i read about them some time > later. True. There is no solution to this problem, except increased communication, *and* a clear link that says "Do you know about a Sage-related discussion group that should be listed here? If so, click here to report it." That link could just be a mailto:harald. >> download page > > Well, there is no javascript involved at all and nothing is guessed by > javascript - it's done via ssi on the server. If it is ok to use > javascript, I can create an intelligent select dialog for the download > process, just like on other pages. It's just that when I started to > create the page the requirement was that all essential functions > should work w/o javascript. So, if it is ok to create a dialog in js > i'll do it. As a fallback for js-disabled browsers I can add a link to > the mirrors. I'm perfectly fine with you using Javascript to make the download process easier for end users. That "no javascript" thing was I think some weird obsession that Michael Abshoff had. The main thing we want to avoid is making it hard to setup mirror sites. Anyway, sagemath.org has javascript all over it already. > And btw, the download link at the top menu was pointing to the > detected operating system, but then i got mails that this is confusing > because there are users who use windows but want to download linux > binaries. So, there is no simple solution and all such simplifications > need a visible fallback to the general case. There are solutions that appear simpler to end users. Almost any major software project's download solution is simpler that what we currently do. -- William > > H > > -- > To post to this group, send an email to sage-devel@googlegroups.com > To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to > sage-devel+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/sage-devel > URL: http://www.sagemath.org > -- William Stein Professor of Mathematics University of Washington http://wstein.org -- To post to this group, send an email to sage-devel@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to sage-devel+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sage-devel URL: http://www.sagemath.org
