Re: [pmwiki-users] it's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2012-05-01 Thread Simon
Worth reviewing

http://www.pmwiki.org/wiki/PmWiki/RoadMap-Talk



On 30 April 2012 04:35, Eric Forgeot eforg...@gmail.com wrote:

 On 28/04/2012 03:30, tamouse mailing lists wrote:
  opposite way. The default skin for the installation should really be
  the simplest set of elements of all, the minimum needed to get a site
  functional.

 I agree. It should be simple, easily expandable. And nice-looking. It's
 not incompatible. But the table should be avoided, it's better to use
 CSS to achieve the same effect.


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Re: [pmwiki-users] it's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2012-04-29 Thread Eric Forgeot
On 28/04/2012 03:30, tamouse mailing lists wrote:
 opposite way. The default skin for the installation should really be
 the simplest set of elements of all, the minimum needed to get a site
 functional.

I agree. It should be simple, easily expandable. And nice-looking. It's
not incompatible. But the table should be avoided, it's better to use
CSS to achieve the same effect.


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Re: [pmwiki-users] it's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2012-04-27 Thread Al Louis Ripskis
Sep 11, 2011 3:35 PM  Eric Forgeot wrote:
why not a new default pmwiki skin?- for the default installation and for the 
http://www.pmwiki.org website? The current ... looks like it was designed in 
1992, 

My question is to Hans, because as I see from his website:
Latest project: Developing a new wiki site template, using new HTML5 elements 
and proportional layout scaling, so a site will look good and function well on 
desktop, laptop, handheld and mobile devices. This site is already using this 
new template. 

Hans, can I use this new template to update the Triad skin that I have been 
using and which you developed?
Thanks,
Al

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Re: [pmwiki-users] it's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2012-04-27 Thread Hans Bracker
Hi Al,

Friday, April 27, 2012, 2:10:05 PM, you wrote:
 Hans, can I use this new template to update the Triad skin that I
 have been using and which you developed?

I have been using the skin on a number of sites, without getting
negative feedback. That said, I have not polished the skin for
release. There are a number of issues which I was not sure about how
to resolve. And it would need quite a bit of documentation, to
explain this very different approach.

Proportional image scaling is one, for instance.
Most editing users are used to use images to a certain pixel size,
rather than having the image adapt to the proportional size of the
container, say 50% width, or 33% width of page width.
I wanted that, but it gets confusing for most to have to specify
proportional widths. It requires to think about layout differently.

But I do wish to release my new skin. Just had  a quick look, and I will
try to go over a few things, then perhaps mail it to you to try out,
if you like. But I can't offer too much hand-holding.
HTML5 templates are really nice and easy to read.
But the various css style sheets I employed are a bit more
challenging. But you can take a look if you like.

It is certainly not a simple enough skin to become a new PmWiki
default skin. Same as the Triad skin, a fairly complex but flexible
beast.

Best regards,
Hans   
www.softflow.co.uk


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Re: [pmwiki-users] it's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2012-04-27 Thread tamouse mailing lists
On Fri, Apr 27, 2012 at 8:10 AM, Al Louis Ripskis rips...@sprynet.com wrote:
 Sep 11, 2011 3:35 PM  Eric Forgeot wrote:
 why not a new default pmwiki skin?- for the default installation and for the 
 http://www.pmwiki.org website? The current ... looks like it was designed in 
 1992,

I know this has gone round and round. However, I'm going to argue the
opposite way. The default skin for the installation should really be
the simplest set of elements of all, the minimum needed to get a site
functional. Many of the more whizzy and advanced skins create
implementation requirements which may not be what the new user wants.
As an implementer, I much prefer to design my own skins anyway.

The collection of skins in the Cookbook is the place to point people
into looking for skins that fit their needs more.

As for the pmwiki.org *site* -- that could use a face-lift, possibly.
But as it's Pm's site, I would leave that up to him.

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Re: [pmwiki-users] It's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2011-10-31 Thread Simon
On 23 September 2011 04:07, Paul Giacherio paulgiache...@gmail.com wrote:



 2] Utilizes simple media queries to ensure the design is functional all
 the way down to mobile sizes

 4] Moves all [and i mean ALL] standard style declarations into the default
 css file - the current, occasional, header style injection can be maddening
 to a first-time customizer
 5] Is structurally table-less


I am so with you on this, especially [4].
Plus if must be extensible by novice users simply by adding CSS and
adjusting the template.

Simon
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Re: [pmwiki-users] It's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2011-09-26 Thread John Rankin

About 4]+5], the (:noleft:) feature in a table-less skin may require some
 CSS
injection, either inline in the html page, or via a link/ to an
 additional

 Indeed, the ability to suppress sections makes a CSS implementation
 harder. Thanks for the reminder.

Agreed. Maybe a little pragmatism would be wise.

While avoiding tables when css offer a better solution is a Good Thing, if
the code for a table-less design is more complex (and maybe less reliable)
than using a table, why choose complexity over simplicity? It would be
better to adopt a pure css design because the css solution is better
rather than because tables are a Bad Thing. In design matters, I believe
there is a saying that if you choose to break the rules, that's OK, but
you need to know what the rules are and why you are breaking them.

JR
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Re: [pmwiki-users] It's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2011-09-24 Thread Oliver Betz
Paul Giacherio wrote:

A css reset is just a group of css declarations which aim to iron out
browser rendering inconsistencies: http://meyerweb.com/eric/tools/css/reset/

What's bad with inconsistencies per se?

IMO css resets are harmful, e.g. with respect to accessibility.

It reminds me of times where people wanted to control web page display
to the pixel position.


BTW: Regarding typography,
http://alexpoole.info/which-are-more-legible-serif-or-sans-serif-typefaces
is listing several studies about serif vs. sans serif. Sadly with
several dead links.

Oliver


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Re: [pmwiki-users] It's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2011-09-24 Thread Oliver Betz
ABClf wrote:

This history big button, next to edit button, is (in my opinion) a
good way to show possible users how a page is done, to enlighten the
fact such a page is a result of x revisions and to appeal the click. I
like that.
(edit button should then become view button when in edit mode, if
someone knows how to do that).

(same, in current PmWiki, I suggest actions link should be showed
accordingly to the current mode : no view when viewing, no edit when
editing. Unless there is a reason I dont see to print them
unconditionally.)

I have a different apporach: I change the style of the current action
e.g. the background colour, for example with a background colour and
not being a link:

  $HTMLStylesFmt[] = ' .{$Action} { background-color: lightblue; }';
  SetTmplDisplay('PageActionFmt',0);

This way, the current action is immediately visible but no link.

Oliver


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Re: [pmwiki-users] It's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2011-09-24 Thread Oliver Betz
Sorry, there is an error in my last posting:

I have a different apporach: I change the style of the current action
e.g. the background colour, for example with a background colour and
not being a link:

  $HTMLStylesFmt[] = ' .{$Action} { background-color: lightblue; }';

this adds bacground colour for the current action, but this:

  SetTmplDisplay('PageActionFmt',0);

Was wrong. I use 

  if($action == browse) $LinkPageSelfFmt =
  span class='selflink'\$LinkText/span; # avoid self-links

but I don't remember why I limited this to the browse action. There
was a reason, though...

Oliver


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Re: [pmwiki-users] It's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2011-09-24 Thread Oliver Betz
Petko Yotov wrote:

 1] Is centered, and has a flexible width to a point - the left-aligned,
 full width current skin is difficult on big screens
 2] Utilizes simple media queries to ensure the design is functional all the
 way down to mobile sizes
 3] Includes a css reset and solid standard typographic style

I think this sums up the points on which we all agree.

I almost forgot: There are pages (e.g. with large tables) where the
full width is definitely needed.

Maybe it's simple to remove the width limit with a table directive?

[...]

About 4]+5], the (:noleft:) feature in a table-less skin may require some CSS 
injection, either inline in the html page, or via a link/ to an additional 

Indeed, the ability to suppress sections makes a CSS implementation
harder. Thanks for the reminder.

Oliver


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Re: [pmwiki-users] It's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2011-09-23 Thread Hans
Thursday, September 22, 2011, 10:21:35 PM, Petko Yotov wrote:

 4] Moves all [and i mean ALL] standard style declarations into the default
 css file - the current, occasional, header style injection can be maddening
 to a first-time customizer

 I agree, but we should go there carefully. Moving these core styles to the
 pmwiki.css file will make them unavailable for existing skins -- published to
 the Cookbook or personal. But it is doable/fixable.

This was discussed years ago on this list.
Don't know if there is a PITS entry for this.
It was suggested to introduce a variable, like
$EnablePmWikiCoreCss, and introduce a pub/cs/pmwiki-core.css
stylesheet.

In absence of this I added such a file to my skins FixFlow, Gemini and
Triad, and use a variable in the skin template, $PmWikiCoreStylesFmt,
which will point to the relevant core style sheet, via the following php
code in the skin php file:


# pmwiki core styles get injected into head by default
# This disables this injection and loads the styles from core.css file instead
SDV($EnablePmWikiCoreCss,1);
global $HTMLStylesFmt, $PmWikiCoreStylesFmt, $PmWikiCoreCss, $FarmPubDirUrl, 
$FarmD;
if($EnablePmWikiCoreCss==1) { 
# awaiting pmwiki suport for pmwiki-core.css, $PmWikiCoreCss may need update!
  SDV($PmWikiCoreCss, pmwiki-core.css);
  if(file_exists($FarmD/pub/css/$PmWikiCoreCss)) SDV($PmWikiCoreStylesFmt, 
link href='$FarmPubDirUrl/css/$PmWikiCoreCss' rel='stylesheet' 
type='text/css' /);
  else
SDV($PmWikiCoreStylesFmt, 
link href='$SkinDirUrl/css/pm-core.css' rel='stylesheet' type='text/css' 
/);
   $HTMLStylesFmt['pmwiki'] = '';
   $HTMLStylesFmt['diff'] = '';
   $HTMLStylesFmt['simuledit'] = '';
   $HTMLStylesFmt['markup'] = '';
   $HTMLStylesFmt['urlapprove'] = '';
   $HTMLStylesFmt['vardoc'] = '';
   $HTMLStylesFmt['wikistyles']= '';
}


  ~Hans


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Re: [pmwiki-users] It's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2011-09-22 Thread John Rankin

 Paul Giacherio wrote:

The .vspace function can be eliminated if we include a proper css reset.
This includes a simple reset with and no .vspace. It needs fine tuning
 but it handles most elements pretty well.

What does proper css reset mean, please?

http://paulgiacherio.kodingen.com/pmwiki/pmwiki-2.2.30/pmwiki.php?n=PmWiki.DocumentationIndex

I support those who commended this design and agree with the comment that
making something happen when a visitor hovers over a link would be a Good
Thing. border-bottom 1px solid would be sufficient (following Wikipedia's
convention).

 see the vspace revisited discussion in this list started 2011-07-22.

 Anyway, having more paragraphs _with_ vspace than without is not
 beautiful in my opinion. Wouldn't it be more elegant to use a class
 lessvspace for the small number of paragraphs where the vertical
 space is not wanted?

This is a very interesting suggestion and makes good sense to me. It is
almost as easy to implement as moving class='vspace' onto every element
that can be preceded by div class='vspace/div in the current
environment. The code would just have to insert class='lessvspace' when
the tag isn't preceded by a vspace.

However, I would really like to understand what is meant by proper css
reset and how it would distinguish between:
* a list item with no vspace above
* a following item with no vspace above

* another item with vspace above

Followed by a paragraph with vspace above.

Plus all the other spaced/unspaced combinations an author may use, so
pmwiki continues to honour the author's intentions.

JR
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Re: [pmwiki-users] It's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2011-09-22 Thread Rogutės Sparnuotos
Forgeot Eric (2011-09-21 22:08):
  http://paulgiacherio.kodingen.com/pmwiki/pmwiki-2.2.30/pmwiki.php?n=PmWiki.DocumentationIndex
 
 it just looks simple and gorgeous at the same time. I think something like 
 that (or even this one) could be a good candidate for the default skin on 
 pmwiki.org

I also like it's appearance.
It is centered (when the width is above 1280px), as some people wanted.
The layout is flexible.

But,
* usability suffers because of the colors (see below);
* the sidebar text overflows into content when zooming or the width is too
  small;
* CSS is too complex/verbose (but I haven't studied it seriously).

 What I like on this one:
 - the content is written with darker letters than the menu so when we see the 
 page, we don't feel overwhelmed by the secondary informations. It's **very** 
 important in my opinion, because as explained before, the pmwiki menu is 
 quite huge

Yes, less distractions is a good thing, but the navigation links are too
light for me (light gray on white background). Moreover, navigation links
are important too, but try to focus and read them from top to bottom on
this page. If I change the color from #999 to #777, it becomes good enough
to me.

 - the content font is easily readable and nice for the eyes

The way fonts are specified is not good:
* font-family:Georgia;
* font-family:Arial;
They need a serif and sans-serif fallbacks respectively.

I haven't got Georgia and my browser uses a sans-serif fallback, so I am
not sure what you are seeing, but I remember someone shouting please, no
Georgia! in this discussion (wonder if it has any merit).

 - the links color is still blue (but nicer than color:blue) so Jakob Nielsen 
 won't feel too shocked. 

I would like them to be darker (it's bright blue text on light background
now), would make it easier to concentrate on the text. Perhaps something
like #99.

 snip

I wonder whether Paul Giacherio anticipated this dissection of his(?)
design.

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Re: [pmwiki-users] It's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2011-09-22 Thread Paul Giacherio

 I wonder whether Paul Giacherio anticipated this dissection of his(?)
 design.


Ha, no I didn't. However, there's a lot of great feedback here that I think
is really valuable.

Just so there's no confusion, that design was never meant to be received as-
this is what I think pmwiki should look like.  Rather, that was just an
internal site which I was working on that I wanted to show as a not-too-bad
example of default typographic styling. Almost everything about that site is
still in development. Having said that, there are a lot of elements (some of
which have already been pointed out) that I think could be considered for a
new default skin.

Form my perspective, I'd like to see a default pmwiki skin that:

1] Is centered, and has a flexible width to a point - the left-aligned, full
width current skin is difficult on big screens
2] Utilizes simple media queries to ensure the design is functional all the
way down to mobile sizes
3] Includes a css reset and solid standard typographic style
4] Moves all [and i mean ALL] standard style declarations into the default
css file - the current, occasional, header style injection can be maddening
to a first-time customizer
5] Is structurally table-less

I too am unsure about things like styling the page actions as buttons.
'Edit' is an action, which I'd rather style as a button but the other
actions I grouped just because they are uniquely wiki actions, and wanted to
set apart for my users.

There have been a few discussions about other CMSs [WordPress, etc.] and the
role of an appealing aesthetic for PmWiki. Personally I find PmWiki
extremely easy to use and customize. However, I don't think
the current visual style helps communicate that ease-of-use to new
audiences. The current default design feels outdated to me, and doesn't do a
good job of reflecting the software's simplicity.  While a direct comparison
with something like WordPress may be apples/oranges, before building an
intranet I considered force.com, wordpress, google sites and pbwiki as
viable solutions. I think that people evaluating pmwiki are likely drawing
on a much wider set of user expectations than just wiki/wiki comparisons.
Anything that can be done through design to position PmWiki as modern,
flexible and easy to use is a step in the right direction in my mind.


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http://paulgiacherio.com
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Re: [pmwiki-users] It's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2011-09-22 Thread rogutes
Paul Giacherio (2011-09-22 12:07):
 1] Is centered, and has a flexible width to a point - the left-aligned, full
 width current skin is difficult on big screens
 2] Utilizes simple media queries to ensure the design is functional all the
 way down to mobile sizes
 3] Includes a css reset and solid standard typographic style
 4] Moves all [and i mean ALL] standard style declarations into the default
 css file - the current, occasional, header style injection can be maddening
 to a first-time customizer
 5] Is structurally table-less

Good points - I agree.

Comments on 3 and 4:
3. Is a CSS reset (unified CSS stylesheets across browsers) really
   required? Is this merely perfectionism, or are there some crazy
   differences between browser-default stylesheets?
4. PmWiki has a history of trying hard to keep compatibility with older
   sites, so replacing the standard style declarations might be difficult.
   But I would also like to see them in the skin instead of being injected
   into HTML. Only the styles for history could land in a separate
   diff.css.

   Or PmWiki could go with the versioning craze and become PmWiki-3,
   dropping some compatibility by cleaning up and adding some features.
   Would be an extraordinary day after a lot of work...

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Re: [pmwiki-users] It's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2011-09-22 Thread Paul Giacherio
A css reset is just a group of css declarations which aim to iron out
browser rendering inconsistencies: http://meyerweb.com/eric/tools/css/reset/

Once you do that, it's much easier to control elements and do things like
work with a baseline grid, etc.

None of this directly addresses the 'vspace' issue outlined below. However,
the repetitive injection of the vspace class is an indicator (to me at
least) that there might be more efficient ways to style the default html
elements. If you flip the problem around, default html tags should be
acceptable most of the time and you add classes only when you need to alter
the default styling.

A reset and some standard typography css just makes it easier to get html
tags to look acceptable as the default.






On Thu, Sep 22, 2011 at 2:19 AM, John Rankin john.ran...@affinity.co.nzwrote:


  Paul Giacherio wrote:
 
 The .vspace function can be eliminated if we include a proper css reset.
 This includes a simple reset with and no .vspace. It needs fine tuning
  but it handles most elements pretty well.

 What does proper css reset mean, please?
 
 
 http://paulgiacherio.kodingen.com/pmwiki/pmwiki-2.2.30/pmwiki.php?n=PmWiki.DocumentationIndex
 
 I support those who commended this design and agree with the comment that
 making something happen when a visitor hovers over a link would be a Good
 Thing. border-bottom 1px solid would be sufficient (following Wikipedia's
 convention).

  see the vspace revisited discussion in this list started 2011-07-22.
 
  Anyway, having more paragraphs _with_ vspace than without is not
  beautiful in my opinion. Wouldn't it be more elegant to use a class
  lessvspace for the small number of paragraphs where the vertical
  space is not wanted?

 This is a very interesting suggestion and makes good sense to me. It is
 almost as easy to implement as moving class='vspace' onto every element
 that can be preceded by div class='vspace/div in the current
 environment. The code would just have to insert class='lessvspace' when
 the tag isn't preceded by a vspace.

 However, I would really like to understand what is meant by proper css
 reset and how it would distinguish between:
 * a list item with no vspace above
 * a following item with no vspace above

 * another item with vspace above

 Followed by a paragraph with vspace above.

 Plus all the other spaced/unspaced combinations an author may use, so
 pmwiki continues to honour the author's intentions.

 JR
 --
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Re: [pmwiki-users] It's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2011-09-22 Thread John Rankin

 Forgeot Eric (2011-09-21 22:08):
  http://paulgiacherio.kodingen.com/pmwiki/pmwiki-2.2.30/pmwiki.php?n=PmWiki.DocumentationIndex

 The way fonts are specified is not good:
 * font-family:Georgia;
 * font-family:Arial;
 They need a serif and sans-serif fallbacks respectively.

If a design like this is adopted for pmwiki.org, it may be better to use
the serif for headings and sans for body (as discussed earlier).

JR
-- 
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Re: [pmwiki-users] It's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2011-09-22 Thread John Rankin

 A css reset is just a group of css declarations which aim to iron out
 browser rendering inconsistencies:
 http://meyerweb.com/eric/tools/css/reset/

 Once you do that, it's much easier to control elements and do things like
 work with a baseline grid, etc.

Thank you. If this approach was built into the default pmwiki skin, would
new users, who may not be html and css experts, perhaps see it as a
complication that unnecessarily raises the barrier to entry?

 None of this directly addresses the 'vspace' issue outlined below.
 However,
 the repetitive injection of the vspace class is an indicator (to me at
 least) that there might be more efficient ways to style the default html
 elements. If you flip the problem around, default html tags should be
 acceptable most of the time and you add classes only when you need to
 alter
 the default styling.

This adds weight to the suggestion that lessvspace should be added to the
elements that need it, rather than the current use of the vspace class.

 A reset and some standard typography css just makes it easier to get html
 tags to look acceptable as the default.

  see the vspace revisited discussion in this list started 2011-07-22.
 
  Anyway, having more paragraphs _with_ vspace than without is not
  beautiful in my opinion. Wouldn't it be more elegant to use a class
  lessvspace for the small number of paragraphs where the vertical
  space is not wanted?

 This is a very interesting suggestion and makes good sense to me. It is
 almost as easy to implement as moving class='vspace' onto every element
 that can be preceded by div class='vspace/div in the current
 environment. The code would just have to insert class='lessvspace' when
 the tag isn't preceded by a vspace.

 However, I would really like to understand what is meant by proper css
 reset and how it would distinguish between:
 * a list item with no vspace above
 * a following item with no vspace above

 * another item with vspace above

 Followed by a paragraph with vspace above.

 Plus all the other spaced/unspaced combinations an author may use, so
 pmwiki continues to honour the author's intentions.


-- 
John Rankin


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Re: [pmwiki-users] It's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2011-09-22 Thread Petko Yotov
On Thursday 22 September 2011 18:07:43, Paul Giacherio wrote :
 there's a lot of great feedback here that I think
 is really valuable.

I strongly agree! Thank you all!

 Form my perspective, I'd like to see a default pmwiki skin that:
 
 1] Is centered, and has a flexible width to a point - the left-aligned,
 full width current skin is difficult on big screens
 2] Utilizes simple media queries to ensure the design is functional all the
 way down to mobile sizes
 3] Includes a css reset and solid standard typographic style

I think this sums up the points on which we all agree.

 4] Moves all [and i mean ALL] standard style declarations into the default
 css file - the current, occasional, header style injection can be maddening
 to a first-time customizer

I agree, but we should go there carefully. Moving these core styles to the 
pmwiki.css file will make them unavailable for existing skins -- published to 
the Cookbook or personal. But it is doable/fixable.

 5] Is structurally table-less

Patrick has a pragmatic approach about skins (and about everything): the 
default skin needs a number of features that work in most browsers and that 
are simple enough for a newcomer to understand and customize:

  http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.web.wiki.pmwiki.user/31185/

I think the goals outlined in that message still apply. Only the browsers have 
greatly improved their CSS compatibility so this might be finaly achievable.

About 4]+5], the (:noleft:) feature in a table-less skin may require some CSS 
injection, either inline in the html page, or via a link/ to an additional 
stylesheet (slightly slower as the browser will have to fetch another file).

Thanks,
Petko

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Re: [pmwiki-users] It's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2011-09-22 Thread Walter Keller
if the skin is changed, please make the menu and the content 
independently scrollable.  Today, if you scroll down a long page the 
navigation area on the left side disapears, if you need it you have to 
scroll up again. This is especially user hostile for the 
current-page-navigation links I like to put on the menu.


Walter

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Re: [pmwiki-users] It's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2011-09-21 Thread Carlos AB
On 9/20/11, Petko Yotov 5...@5ko.fr wrote:
 On Wednesday 21 September 2011 00:40:16, Carlos AB wrote :
 Or perhaps  just simply a link from Menu to the sidebar page.

 Or to a larger page like a site map.

 That too.

 The idea of not having a sidebar displayed togheter with the current
 page, can look simple, attractive, functional and add the possibility
 to use the same skin for more devices, using css media queries as you
 said.

 I think wikis with many groups and pages, with teams of writers may really
 need a sidebar navigation. Even, in some cases, a 3 column skin with 2
 sidebars may be needed, with a top breadcrumbs navigation and a bottom
 trail. :-)

 A simplistic skin will suit well smaller sites with a very limited number of
 pages, maintained by a single author.

 The default skin with a sidebar is neither too much, nor not enough. It is
 easy to understand (Group sidebar or Site sidebar), it has links to the
 documentation and a link Edit Sidebar. This principle is not too bad for a
 default installation, and for the pmwiki.org website -- one can use PmWiki
 for
 tiny and for huge sites.

 Again, the skin could adapt for a small screen to a simpler layout.

 The template would be very, very simple and easy to customize, all the
 complexity - that wouldn't be much - would be hidden in the css

 If the default (or pmwiki.org) skin is too minimalistic, a visitor who needs
 a
 larger community or intranet wiki, may not immediately notice that PmWiki
 can
 do large portals -- and visitors don't stay long on any page (10-30 sec):

   http://www.useit.com/alertbox/page-abandonment-time.html (latest Alertbox)

 If the default skin is too complex, a person who just needs a small personal
 wiki may also zap to elsewhere.

 So, when I wrote that the homepage should be well balanced, it should show
 enough of the potential of PmWiki for a visit of 20 seconds.

 There are good examples out there, such as some of the sites Petko made,
 see: http://notamment.fr/

 The PmWiki-driven sites listed there are really small sites with only few
 dozens of pages and 1-2 editors. While they are examples of what PmWiki
 does,
 they don't even use 1/10 of all PmWiki *can* do.

 Petko

Good points.

CarlosAB

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Re: [pmwiki-users] It's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2011-09-21 Thread John Rankin

 On 9/20/11, Petko Yotov 5...@5ko.fr wrote:
 On Wednesday 21 September 2011 00:40:16, Carlos AB wrote :
[snip]

 Good points.

Agreed. There appears to be a good convergence of views on the
requirements for a new default skin, although there will no doubt be
devils in the detail.

This is not quite on-topic, but I'd like to re-visit the discussion from
July on class='vspace'. Is div class='vspace'/div the tidiest way to
control vertical space between lines? If not, is lifting the default skin
also a good time to tweak the html?

There is a markup rule that produces p class='vspace' instead of div
class='vspace'/divp. Perhaps this could be generalised to produce,
for example, /lili class='vspace' instead of div
class='vspace'/div/lili, and so on. As far as I can see, all
occurrences of div class='vspace'/div can be replaced by
class='vspace' on the following element. Is there a reason *not* to do
this?

-- 
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Re: [pmwiki-users] It's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2011-09-21 Thread Ville Takanen
Echo John on the div.vspace. I do like the .vspace, but additional divs seem
a bit overkill.

On Wed, Sep 21, 2011 at 11:03 AM, John Rankin john.ran...@affinity.co.nzwrote:


  On 9/20/11, Petko Yotov 5...@5ko.fr wrote:
  On Wednesday 21 September 2011 00:40:16, Carlos AB wrote :
 [snip]

  Good points.

 Agreed. There appears to be a good convergence of views on the
 requirements for a new default skin, although there will no doubt be
 devils in the detail.

 This is not quite on-topic, but I'd like to re-visit the discussion from
 July on class='vspace'. Is div class='vspace'/div the tidiest way to
 control vertical space between lines? If not, is lifting the default skin
 also a good time to tweak the html?

 There is a markup rule that produces p class='vspace' instead of div
 class='vspace'/divp. Perhaps this could be generalised to produce,
 for example, /lili class='vspace' instead of div
 class='vspace'/div/lili, and so on. As far as I can see, all
 occurrences of div class='vspace'/div can be replaced by
 class='vspace' on the following element. Is there a reason *not* to do
 this?

 --
 John Rankin


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Re: [pmwiki-users] It's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2011-09-21 Thread Paul Giacherio
The .vspace function can be eliminated if we include a proper css reset.
This includes a simple reset with and no .vspace. It needs fine tuning but
it handles most elements pretty well.

http://paulgiacherio.kodingen.com/pmwiki/pmwiki-2.2.30/pmwiki.php?n=PmWiki.DocumentationIndex




On Wed, Sep 21, 2011 at 6:45 AM, Ville Takanen ville.taka...@iki.fi wrote:

 Echo John on the div.vspace. I do like the .vspace, but additional divs
 seem a bit overkill.


 On Wed, Sep 21, 2011 at 11:03 AM, John Rankin 
 john.ran...@affinity.co.nzwrote:


  On 9/20/11, Petko Yotov 5...@5ko.fr wrote:
  On Wednesday 21 September 2011 00:40:16, Carlos AB wrote :
 [snip]

  Good points.

 Agreed. There appears to be a good convergence of views on the
 requirements for a new default skin, although there will no doubt be
 devils in the detail.

 This is not quite on-topic, but I'd like to re-visit the discussion from
 July on class='vspace'. Is div class='vspace'/div the tidiest way to
 control vertical space between lines? If not, is lifting the default skin
 also a good time to tweak the html?

 There is a markup rule that produces p class='vspace' instead of div
 class='vspace'/divp. Perhaps this could be generalised to produce,
 for example, /lili class='vspace' instead of div
 class='vspace'/div/lili, and so on. As far as I can see, all
 occurrences of div class='vspace'/div can be replaced by
 class='vspace' on the following element. Is there a reason *not* to do
 this?

 --
 John Rankin


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 --
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Re: [pmwiki-users] It's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2011-09-21 Thread Oliver Betz
Paul Giacherio wrote:

The .vspace function can be eliminated if we include a proper css reset.
This includes a simple reset with and no .vspace. It needs fine tuning but
it handles most elements pretty well.

http://paulgiacherio.kodingen.com/pmwiki/pmwiki-2.2.30/pmwiki.php?n=PmWiki.DocumentationIndex

see the vspace revisited discussion in this list started 2011-07-22.

I copied the testcase *) to your sandbox. At least the space between
list heading and first list item is large. PmWiki makes this as
small as between list items.

I still wonder what the problems of a pure CSS solution are Patrick
mentioned in previous posts. Then we could expand the test case and
look for solutions.

Anyway, having more paragraphs _with_ vspace than without is not
beautiful in my opinion. Wouldn't it be more elegant to use a class
lessvspace for the small number of paragraphs where the vertical
space is not wanted?

Patrick

*) http://www.pmwiki.org/wiki/Test/Vspace


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Re: [pmwiki-users] It's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2011-09-21 Thread Oliver Betz
Oliver Betz wrote:

[...]

Patrick

of course, I didn't want to sign this mail with Patrick's name. It was
a reformatting error, and the posting wasn't ready to send...

Oliver


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Re: [pmwiki-users] It's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2011-09-21 Thread Paul Giacherio
It does need tweaking, but that sandbox page looks like a pretty good
starting point to me.

Regarding the 'List Heading' and the following list- I might take issue with
the desired outcome. The desire to couple a heading to a list could
(should?) be handled with a unique style when needed.  If that's the logical
structure I'd argue that a DL might be better markup too. Which, last time I
checked, DL markup was implemented incorrectly in PmWiki.

I don't know what the prior issues regarding a pure css approach are, but I
have a hard time believing that they are insurmountable.






On Wed, Sep 21, 2011 at 12:15 PM, Oliver Betz list...@gmx.net wrote:

 Paul Giacherio wrote:

 The .vspace function can be eliminated if we include a proper css reset.
 This includes a simple reset with and no .vspace. It needs fine tuning but
 it handles most elements pretty well.
 
 
 http://paulgiacherio.kodingen.com/pmwiki/pmwiki-2.2.30/pmwiki.php?n=PmWiki.DocumentationIndex

 see the vspace revisited discussion in this list started 2011-07-22.

 I copied the testcase *) to your sandbox. At least the space between
 list heading and first list item is large. PmWiki makes this as
 small as between list items.

 I still wonder what the problems of a pure CSS solution are Patrick
 mentioned in previous posts. Then we could expand the test case and
 look for solutions.

 Anyway, having more paragraphs _with_ vspace than without is not
 beautiful in my opinion. Wouldn't it be more elegant to use a class
 lessvspace for the small number of paragraphs where the vertical
 space is not wanted?

 Patrick

 *) http://www.pmwiki.org/wiki/Test/Vspace


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Re: [pmwiki-users] It's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2011-09-21 Thread Forgeot Eric
 http://paulgiacherio.kodingen.com/pmwiki/pmwiki-2.2.30/pmwiki.php?n=PmWiki.DocumentationIndex

it just looks simple and gorgeous at the same time. I think something like that 
(or even this one) could be a good candidate for the default skin on pmwiki.org

What I like on this one:
- the content is written with darker letters than the menu so when we see the 
page, we don't feel overwhelmed by the secondary informations. It's **very** 
important in my opinion, because as explained before, the pmwiki menu is quite 
huge

- the content font is easily readable and nice for the eyes
- the links color is still blue (but nicer than color:blue) so Jakob Nielsen 
won't feel too shocked. 

The visited and hover links are not in a different tone, but this could be 
easily improved/activated.

This kind of theme has quite an identity, it doesn't look dull and therefore it 
could be a good starting point (I'm only talking about the general appearance, 
I haven't studied the html/css code).

With a good looking theme like this one, potential user would rather think 
cool, if the default theme looks like this one, my website will **at least** 
look that good if I can't make a better one. 

With the current one, potential users may rather thing if I ever think to use 
pmwiki in the future, how could I be sure to find a good theme or be able to 
improve this one?

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Re: [pmwiki-users] It's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2011-09-21 Thread DaveG



On 9/21/2011 5:08 PM, Forgeot Eric wrote:

http://paulgiacherio.kodingen.com/pmwiki/pmwiki-2.2.30/pmwiki.php?n=PmWiki.DocumentationIndex


it just looks simple and gorgeous at the same time. I think something like that 
(or even this one) could be a good candidate for the default skin on pmwiki.org
Agreed -- also like this one. Would be easy to add a splash of color, 
without upsetting the simplicity.




What I like on this one:
- the content is written with darker letters than the menu so when we see the 
page, we don't feel overwhelmed by the secondary informations. It's **very** 
important in my opinion, because as explained before, the pmwiki menu is quite 
huge

- the content font is easily readable and nice for the eyes
- the links color is still blue (but nicer than color:blue) so Jakob Nielsen 
won't feel too shocked.

The visited and hover links are not in a different tone, but this could be 
easily improved/activated.
I also like the modernish Edit/History buttons. Very much in the feel of 
http://github.com/



 ~ ~ Dave

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Re: [pmwiki-users] It's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2011-09-21 Thread Martin Fick
--- On Wed, 9/21/11, DaveG pmw...@solidgone.com wrote:
 I also like the modernish Edit/History buttons. Very much
 in the feel of 

I have to disagree about this.  I don't like buttons 
that simply follow links, which is what those do.  
Perhaps I could think of Edit as an action, but
History?

-Martin


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Re: [pmwiki-users] It's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2011-09-21 Thread ABClf
This history big button, next to edit button, is (in my opinion) a
good way to show possible users how a page is done, to enlighten the
fact such a page is a result of x revisions and to appeal the click. I
like that.
(edit button should then become view button when in edit mode, if
someone knows how to do that).

(same, in current PmWiki, I suggest actions link should be showed
accordingly to the current mode : no view when viewing, no edit when
editing. Unless there is a reason I dont see to print them
unconditionally.)

Other actions (print, backlincks, pdf...) are less important and could
be listed in page footer, as icons, in menu, or else. In any case, it
would be possible to list them next to other big ones.

Gilles.



2011/9/22 Martin Fick mogul...@yahoo.com:
 --- On Wed, 9/21/11, DaveG pmw...@solidgone.com wrote:
 I also like the modernish Edit/History buttons. Very much
 in the feel of

 I have to disagree about this.  I don't like buttons
 that simply follow links, which is what those do.
 Perhaps I could think of Edit as an action, but
 History?

 -Martin


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---
| A | de la langue française
| B | http://www.languefrancaise.net/
| C | languefranca...@gmail.com
---

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[pmwiki-users] It's time to change pmwiki default skin! (Hans)

2011-09-20 Thread Forgeot Eric
 Anyone here who would like the PmWiki skin to support mobile devices
 as well as desktop screens?

I think the best is to fallback to another skin, with this convenient cookbook:

http://www.pmwiki.org/wiki/Cookbook/DetectMobile

even for skin using non fixed width, it's generally not usable on mobile 
devices, for example the sidebar menu itself is generally bigger than the 
mobile screen.

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Re: [pmwiki-users] It's time to change pmwiki default skin! (Hans)

2011-09-20 Thread Ville Takanen
Another approach would be to use CSS media width rules. These work quite
well in current phones and tablets.

http://mislav.uniqpath.com/2010/04/targeted-css/

On Tue, Sep 20, 2011 at 10:37 AM, Forgeot Eric eforg...@yahoo.fr wrote:

  Anyone here who would like the PmWiki skin to support mobile devices
  as well as desktop screens?

 I think the best is to fallback to another skin, with this convenient
 cookbook:

 http://www.pmwiki.org/wiki/Cookbook/DetectMobile

 even for skin using non fixed width, it's generally not usable on mobile
 devices, for example the sidebar menu itself is generally bigger than the
 mobile screen.

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Re: [pmwiki-users] It's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2011-09-20 Thread rogutes
Hans (2011-09-19 09:22):
 Monday, September 19, 2011, 12:57:26 AM, Rogutės Sparnuotos wrote:
 
  1. Homepage for Symfony 1: http://www.symfony-project.org/
 (a bit like PmWiki?).
 
  2. Homepage for symfony 2: http://symfony.com/
 (did I just visit wordpress.org?).
 
  1. is not perfect, but 2. is everywhere nowadays...
 
 Both don't work on mobile devices.
 
 #2 is just another fixed width layout, which does not adapt to
 browser/screen widths.

Just checked it out, symfony.com looks horrible on mobile indeed. 

 I like the cleaner look using more spaces between lines.
 
 I can't stand the trend of using grey text, and #2 shows grey text on
 grey background (boxes), which is even worse.

Can't stand it either.

 Anyone here who would like the PmWiki skin to support mobile devices
 as well as desktop screens?

I'm not browsing with mobile devices, but I am not against supporting
them. Are you thinking about a special skin for very small screens, or one
skin that is good enough for both use cases?

I think that the best approach would be to aim for simplicity in the new
default skin (minimal distractions on the homepage) and use media queries,
avoid fixed widths.

I find that mobile browsers are good enough to deal with web pages that
haven't got special skins for them. Even pmwiki.org and the skin I have
posted look almost good on my 172x220 resolution phone with Opera Mobile
(they are only a little too wide and this can be fixed).

By the way, does http://www.pmwiki.org/wiki/PmWiki/BasicEditing look ok on
small widths (but bigger than my 172x220)?

And would it really be a good idea to move the sidebar down for mobile
devices (as someone suggested)? It would mean a lot of vertical scrolling
to reach it on longer pages. And if the sidebar is on the side, one can
zoom out and back in to reach it (or scroll horizontally, if the sidebar
has position:fixed).

-- 
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Re: [pmwiki-users] It's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2011-09-20 Thread Petko Yotov
On Tuesday 20 September 2011 13:09:26, rogu...@googlemail.com wrote :
 I'm not browsing with mobile devices, but I am not against supporting
 them. Are you thinking about a special skin for very small screens, or one
 skin that is good enough for both use cases?

I'm not sure the same page could look fantastic on screens wide 172px and 
2048px at the same time. So it would probably be either different skins or 
different skin modes as some suggested.

 I think that the best approach would be to aim for simplicity in the new
 default skin (minimal distractions on the homepage) and use media queries,

What is media queries?

I see a future mobile skin (mode) primarily targeting readers and not writers 
of pmwikis in the wild, simply because editing a long text on a mobile phone 
is way too long and difficult and is done only in rare cases.

I wouldn't worry too much about the pmwiki.org website on the tiny screens of 
mobile phones -- our visitors are admins coming to download and install PmWiki 
and recipes, read the documentation and customize their installations (SSH, 
FTP...). You don't do these things on a phone. That's why I want a balanced 
pmwiki.org home page, neither too complex and overwhelming, nor too simple and 
empty.

 By the way, does http://www.pmwiki.org/wiki/PmWiki/BasicEditing look ok on
 small widths (but bigger than my 172x220)?

On a 240x320 the markup examples don't look too good, but as I said this 
documentation page will be read by wiki writers who are more likely to be on a 
normal screen. On 360x640, especially landscape 640x360 it is quite good.

 And would it really be a good idea to move the sidebar down for mobile
 devices (as someone suggested)? It would mean a lot of vertical scrolling
 to reach it on longer pages. And if the sidebar is on the side, one can
 zoom out and back in to reach it (or scroll horizontally, if the sidebar
 has position:fixed).

The fixed position in CSS should be used carefully, because if the sidebar 
or other element is taller than the screen, a part of it will never be 
displayed. And desktop browsers don't have the same zoom feature as mobile 
ones. For example, this skin has a sidebar taller than the screen of my laptop

  http://www.pmwiki.org/wiki/Cookbook/FixFlowSkin?setmenu=fixed

and only half of the sidebar is shown, up to the Skins link. Fortunately, 
this skin has a mode with a scrolling sidebar, without position:fixed.

For a mobile device I would probably prefer a different menu, that is a wiki 
page other than Site.SideBar, with less selected links, eg. a topbar in a 
single line which needs much less screen area than a full sidebar. If more 
links are required, they could be placed at the bottom of the page like on the 
other popular websites (Wordpress...).

Petko

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Re: [pmwiki-users] It's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2011-09-20 Thread Rogutės Sparnuotos
Petko Yotov (2011-09-20 16:07):
 On Tuesday 20 September 2011 13:09:26, rogu...@googlemail.com wrote :
  I'm not browsing with mobile devices, but I am not against supporting
  them. Are you thinking about a special skin for very small screens, or one
  skin that is good enough for both use cases?
 
 I'm not sure the same page could look fantastic on screens wide 172px and 
 2048px at the same time. So it would probably be either different skins or 
 different skin modes as some suggested.

No, definitely not fantastic. But the change from 1000px to 2000px is also
pretty hard to manage while keeping it beautiful. And mobile browsers seem
to have a pretty good overview and zooming ability.

  I think that the best approach would be to aim for simplicity in the new
  default skin (minimal distractions on the homepage) and use media queries,
 
 What is media queries?

http://www.w3.org/TR/css3-mediaqueries/
You have put a link to Detecting device size  orientation in CSS in
PITS/01265, which describes media queries from a practical standpoint.
I use them to change from 'position:absolute;' to 'position:fixed;' on one
PmWiki site when screen width is smaller than 970px:

@media all and (min-width:970px) {
  #wikileft {
position:fixed;
  }
}

 I see a future mobile skin (mode) primarily targeting readers and not writers 
 of pmwikis in the wild, simply because editing a long text on a mobile phone 
 is way too long and difficult and is done only in rare cases.

Good point.
But recently I had bad experience on a site with a special interface for
mobile users - it didn't have the feature that I came for and which was
present in the normal interface. So the possibility to edit shouldn't be
hidden in mobile mode.

 I wouldn't worry too much about the pmwiki.org website on the tiny screens of 
 mobile phones -- our visitors are admins coming to download and install 
 PmWiki 
 and recipes, read the documentation and customize their installations (SSH, 
 FTP...). You don't do these things on a phone. That's why I want a balanced 
 pmwiki.org home page, neither too complex and overwhelming, nor too simple 
 and 
 empty.

  By the way, does http://www.pmwiki.org/wiki/PmWiki/BasicEditing look ok on
  small widths (but bigger than my 172x220)?
 
 On a 240x320 the markup examples don't look too good, but as I said this 
 documentation page will be read by wiki writers who are more likely to be on 
 a 
 normal screen. On 360x640, especially landscape 640x360 it is quite good.

People do read documentation on mobile phones and especially tablets. But
perhaps this is not the case with PmWiki writers, dunno.

  And would it really be a good idea to move the sidebar down for mobile
  devices (as someone suggested)? It would mean a lot of vertical scrolling
  to reach it on longer pages. And if the sidebar is on the side, one can
  zoom out and back in to reach it (or scroll horizontally, if the sidebar
  has position:fixed).
 
 The fixed position in CSS should be used carefully, because if the sidebar 
 or other element is taller than the screen, a part of it will never be 
 displayed. And desktop browsers don't have the same zoom feature as mobile 
 ones. For example, this skin has a sidebar taller than the screen of my laptop
 
   http://www.pmwiki.org/wiki/Cookbook/FixFlowSkin?setmenu=fixed
 
 and only half of the sidebar is shown, up to the Skins link. Fortunately, 
 this skin has a mode with a scrolling sidebar, without position:fixed.

Yes, the skin needs this:
#sidebarbox {
  overflow:auto;
}

 For a mobile device I would probably prefer a different menu, that is a wiki 
 page other than Site.SideBar, with less selected links, eg. a topbar in a 
 single line which needs much less screen area than a full sidebar. If more 
 links are required, they could be placed at the bottom of the page like on 
 the 
 other popular websites (Wordpress...).

Are 'position:fixed;' elements working fine on mobile browsers? It could
be a topbar with
  Menu Home Link1 Link2 Link3

And clicking on Menu could open a javascript popup...

-- 
--  Rogutės Sparnuotos

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Re: [pmwiki-users] It's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2011-09-20 Thread Carlos AB
 For a mobile device I would probably prefer a different menu, that is a
 wiki
 page other than Site.SideBar, with less selected links, eg. a topbar in a
 single line which needs much less screen area than a full sidebar. If more

 links are required, they could be placed at the bottom of the page like on
 the
 other popular websites (Wordpress...).

 Are 'position:fixed;' elements working fine on mobile browsers? It could
 be a topbar with
   Menu Home Link1 Link2 Link3

 And clicking on Menu could open a javascript popup...

 --
 --  Rogutės Sparnuotos

Or perhaps  just simply a link from Menu to the sidebar page.

The idea of not having a sidebar displayed togheter with the current
page, can look simple, attractive, functional and add the possibility
to use the same skin for more devices, using css media queries as you
said.

The template would be very, very simple and easy to customize, all the
complexity - that wouldn't be much - would be hidden in the css and
there would be no need for frameworks.

There are good examples out there, such as some of the sites Petko made, see:

http://notamment.fr/

There is one site, that I couldn't find right now, that Petko made and
related to sailing that could be used as a really good example for
that.

The front page is very rich in details about the content of the site
with links to social sites, bliki/blog posts, photo galleries and
everything is organized inside the font page. Even the columns used
for some structure (two columns) were made in PmWiki markup, if I
remember correctly.

Also, you can see people doing things like this :

http://www.ditudo.wiki.br/

To be able to see wikipedia content on small devices.

CarlosAB

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Re: [pmwiki-users] It's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2011-09-20 Thread Petko Yotov
The sailing site is here:
  http://zenzero.marex-commodities.fr/

On Wednesday 21 September 2011 00:40:16, Carlos AB wrote :
 There is one site, that I couldn't find right now, that Petko made and
 related to sailing that could be used as a really good example for
 that.
 
 The front page is very rich in details about the content of the site
 with links to social sites, bliki/blog posts, photo galleries and
 everything is organized inside the font page. Even the columns used
 for some structure (two columns) were made in PmWiki markup, if I
 remember correctly.

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Re: [pmwiki-users] It's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2011-09-19 Thread Hans
Monday, September 19, 2011, 12:57:26 AM, Rogutės Sparnuotos wrote:

 1. Homepage for Symfony 1: http://www.symfony-project.org/
(a bit like PmWiki?).

 2. Homepage for symfony 2: http://symfony.com/
(did I just visit wordpress.org?).

 1. is not perfect, but 2. is everywhere nowadays...

Both don't work on mobile devices.

#2 is just another fixed width layout, which does not adapt to
browser/screen widths.

I like the cleaner look using more spaces between lines.

I can't stand the trend of using grey text, and #2 shows grey text on
grey background (boxes), which is even worse.

Anyone here who would like the PmWiki skin to support mobile devices
as well as desktop screens?


  ~Hans


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Re: [pmwiki-users] It's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2011-09-19 Thread jdd-gmane

Le 19/09/2011 10:22, Hans a écrit :


Anyone here who would like the PmWiki skin to support mobile devices
as well as desktop screens?


sure!

jdd

--
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http://www.youtube.com/user/jdddodinorg
http://jdd.blip.tv/


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Re: [pmwiki-users] It's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2011-09-18 Thread Rogutės Sparnuotos
Carlos AB (2011-09-13 22:04):
 Hi Forgeot, List,
 
 I have created a group Called NewSkinIdeas and posted an initial idea there 
 in
 
 http://www.pmwiki.org/wiki/NewSkinIdeas/CarlosAB
 
 Feel free to comment and post new ideas.

I found the minimal design of your mock-ups attractive and made a skin:
http://demo.neto.li/pmwiki-carlskin/
http://demo.neto.li/pmwiki-carlskin/pub/skins/carlskin/pmwiki.tmpl
http://demo.neto.li/pmwiki-carlskin/pub/skins/carlskin/pmwiki.css

I am not yet sure were to use it, but it will find a place :)

Anyone else interested in this design, should I upload it to pmwiki.org?

What about something similar as a new default?

Some random points regarding this discussion, after making my skin and
looking through http://www.pmwiki.org/wiki/PITS/01265:
1. The default skin should be updated. It doesn't have to be a complete
   facelift, and the new skin shouldn't become too complex. But is there a
   consensus which path to take (more features or less clutter)?

   My skin doesn't show any new features, but I find its .tmpl and .css
   files simpler than pmwiki's default.

   The wordpress.org and textpattern.com examples others posted are too
   loaded for me.

2. In my skin, it is easy to add configurable colors, include
   Site.WikiFoot as a footer page, but it is hard to find a place for a
   header and a searchbox. Though constraining, such a minimal design
   forces us to abandon clutter.

3. It is hard to „Easily switch to right sidebar.“ without using tables
   (various scrolling, text zooming, overflow problems arise). Are there
   any new sites using tables nowadays?

4. I think that it is impossible to have a flexible layout and a centered
   page, though full-zoom of modern browsers might be a solution (but one
   mustn't forget that the point of zoom is to increase the text size).

-- 
--  Rogutės Sparnuotos

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Re: [pmwiki-users] It's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2011-09-18 Thread Hans

I think a new skin development should address the fact that more and
more users access web pages on small displays, on mobile devices, on
small phone screens, tablets and wide screen monitors.
It would be nice if a skin could accommodate all of these hugely
different screen sizes, and not burden the admin person to cater for
different  screen sizes by adding extra skins and filter mechanisms
for these skins. The skin template should filter to different css.

If the PmWiki default skin could do this, basically using perhaps
three different style sheets to cater for text screen phones, for
mobile devices like iphones, and for bigger screens like tablets and
monitors, then this would give a useful blueprint for skin developers
as well as being easy for first time installs.

That's really my biggest wish for a  modern skin.

Otherwise I just got some niggles, like (:noaction:) suppressing the
action nav links at the top, but not below the content, and fixed
pixel sizes rather than proportional sizes in the css.

Also: If the sidebar gets moved to the right, it would make it easier
to drop it below the content for devices with small widths like phones,
rather than having it appear before the page content.


  ~Hans


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Re: [pmwiki-users] it's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2011-09-18 Thread Kenneth Forsbäck

So easily forgotten, and all too seldom used!

On 2011-09-18 1:20 am, V.Krishn wrote:

On Sunday, September 18, 2011 03:19:43 AM Carlos AB wrote:

I agree, even though I have never worked with people with such
disabilities, It is good to know that they found no problems understanding
how PmWiki differentiates one type of link from the other, and also that
people writing skins for PmWiki have to think about a lot when trying to
make a new move.



There is a much less used feature that allows switching of stylesheet without
using javascript.
Skin providing alternate stylesheet like
1. High contrast
2. Low contrast
3. 16 color
4. High color
..etc.. can help, including adaptiblity to low end devices/screens.

link rel=stylesheet href=style.css type=text/css /
link rel=alternate stylesheet href=highcontrast.css type=text/css
title=High Contrast Color Style /
link rel=alternate stylesheet href=lowcontrast.css type=text/css
title=Low Contrast Color Style /

I have tested this feature since firefox 0.9+ and konqueror 3.5+.
I could not locate the functionality in Chromium.



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Re: [pmwiki-users] It's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2011-09-18 Thread Petko Yotov
On Sunday 18 September 2011 13:18:58, Rogutės Sparnuotos wrote :
 The wordpress.org and textpattern.com examples others posted are too
 loaded for me.

These are sources for ideas more for the pmwiki.org home page than for a new 
default skin in the distribution. 

We want a simple, minimal skin for an empty PmWiki installation, that would be 
easier for new admins to understand and customize. 

For the pmwiki.org home page, we want a well balanced selection of features, 
content, links and styles to show better the PmWiki potential and continuous 
development.

Petko

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Re: [pmwiki-users] It's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2011-09-18 Thread Carlos AB
I left the mock-up there so people could add or modify the skin idea
more easily, before it is finally put on paper.

Change the size and proportions, decide to use the search as an action
on the action bar or put the form somewhere on the side bar and other
changes people may find significant.

You did put it all together nicely, but a little bit of care with the
size and proportions would make it look better.

Also, the dark frame around the content area, helps a bit to make It
look less simpler.

The css and tmpl are smaller and simpler than PmWiki's default and
that is a good thing.

Another thing to look at is if the skin looks good in different
browsers and if layout won't break in different situations with those
same browsers.

Other than that, it looks ok to me.

Thank you,

CarlosAB

On 9/18/11, Rogutės Sparnuotos rogu...@googlemail.com wrote:
 Carlos AB (2011-09-13 22:04):
 Hi Forgeot, List,

 I have created a group Called NewSkinIdeas and posted an initial idea
 there in

 http://www.pmwiki.org/wiki/NewSkinIdeas/CarlosAB

 Feel free to comment and post new ideas.

 I found the minimal design of your mock-ups attractive and made a skin:
 http://demo.neto.li/pmwiki-carlskin/
 http://demo.neto.li/pmwiki-carlskin/pub/skins/carlskin/pmwiki.tmpl
 http://demo.neto.li/pmwiki-carlskin/pub/skins/carlskin/pmwiki.css

 I am not yet sure were to use it, but it will find a place :)

 Anyone else interested in this design, should I upload it to pmwiki.org?

 What about something similar as a new default?

 Some random points regarding this discussion, after making my skin and
 looking through http://www.pmwiki.org/wiki/PITS/01265:
 1. The default skin should be updated. It doesn't have to be a complete
facelift, and the new skin shouldn't become too complex. But is there a
consensus which path to take (more features or less clutter)?

My skin doesn't show any new features, but I find its .tmpl and .css
files simpler than pmwiki's default.

The wordpress.org and textpattern.com examples others posted are too
loaded for me.

 2. In my skin, it is easy to add configurable colors, include
Site.WikiFoot as a footer page, but it is hard to find a place for a
header and a searchbox. Though constraining, such a minimal design
forces us to abandon clutter.

 3. It is hard to „Easily switch to right sidebar.“ without using tables
(various scrolling, text zooming, overflow problems arise). Are there
any new sites using tables nowadays?

 4. I think that it is impossible to have a flexible layout and a centered
page, though full-zoom of modern browsers might be a solution (but one
mustn't forget that the point of zoom is to increase the text size).

 --
 --  Rogutės Sparnuotos

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Re: [pmwiki-users] it's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2011-09-18 Thread Carlos AB
On 9/17/11, V.Krishn vkris...@gmail.com wrote:
 There is a much less used feature that allows switching of stylesheet
 without
 using javascript.
 Skin providing alternate stylesheet like
 1. High contrast
 2. Low contrast
 3. 16 color
 4. High color
 ..etc.. can help, including adaptiblity to low end devices/screens.

 link rel=stylesheet href=style.css type=text/css /
 link rel=alternate stylesheet href=highcontrast.css type=text/css
 title=High Contrast Color Style /
 link rel=alternate stylesheet href=lowcontrast.css type=text/css
 title=Low Contrast Color Style /

 I have tested this feature since firefox 0.9+ and konqueror 3.5+.
 I could not locate the functionality in Chromium.

 --
 Regards.
 V.Krishn

If we have to consider older browsers as a target, the ones without
support for it, than we will have to use another mechanism, such as
this:

http://www.alistapart.com/articles/alternate/

CarlosAB

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Re: [pmwiki-users] it's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2011-09-18 Thread Carlos AB
On 9/18/11, Carlos AB cabsec.pmw...@gmail.com wrote:
 On 9/17/11, V.Krishn vkris...@gmail.com wrote:
 There is a much less used feature that allows switching of stylesheet
 without
 using javascript.
 Skin providing alternate stylesheet like
 1. High contrast
 2. Low contrast
 3. 16 color
 4. High color
 ..etc.. can help, including adaptiblity to low end devices/screens.

 link rel=stylesheet href=style.css type=text/css /
 link rel=alternate stylesheet href=highcontrast.css type=text/css
 title=High Contrast Color Style /
 link rel=alternate stylesheet href=lowcontrast.css type=text/css
 title=Low Contrast Color Style /

 I have tested this feature since firefox 0.9+ and konqueror 3.5+.
 I could not locate the functionality in Chromium.

 --
 Regards.
 V.Krishn

 If we have to consider older browsers as a target, the ones without
 support for it, than we will have to use another mechanism, such as
 this:

 http://www.alistapart.com/articles/alternate/

 CarlosAB


It's the same principal mechanism, but with some javascript to help
older browsers see it

CarlosAB.

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Re: [pmwiki-users] It's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2011-09-18 Thread John Rankin

On 19/09/11 8:11 AM, Carlos AB wrote:

You did put it all together nicely, but a little bit of care with the
size and proportions would make it look better.
In particular, the body text would be more readable if the width were 
narrower.
To achieve an average of 60-70 characters per line of text, which I 
understand is

optimal (see for example http://baymard.com/blog/line-length-readability --
an example of tidy, minimal design, although 17pt Arial?), a width of 
around 45em
is more suitable. A too narrow sidebar could be problematic. The page 
above uses
a sidebar to body ratio of 1:2. It also has serif headings with sans 
body. The
comments are interesting too -- in particular the suggestion to increase 
the

inter-line spacing over the default value.

Bringhurst (The Elements of Typographic Style) recommends an average of 66
characters per line.

JR

On 9/18/11, Rogutės Sparnuotosrogu...@googlemail.com  wrote:

Carlos AB (2011-09-13 22:04):

Hi Forgeot, List,

I have created a group Called NewSkinIdeas and posted an initial idea
there in

http://www.pmwiki.org/wiki/NewSkinIdeas/CarlosAB

Feel free to comment and post new ideas.

I found the minimal design of your mock-ups attractive and made a skin:
http://demo.neto.li/pmwiki-carlskin/
http://demo.neto.li/pmwiki-carlskin/pub/skins/carlskin/pmwiki.tmpl
http://demo.neto.li/pmwiki-carlskin/pub/skins/carlskin/pmwiki.css

--
John Rankin
Affinity Limited
T 64 4 495 3737
F 64 4 473 7991
M 021 RANKIN
john.ran...@affinity.co.nz
www.affinity.co.nz


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Re: [pmwiki-users] It's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2011-09-18 Thread John Rankin

Make that a width of 35em. My error.

On 19/09/11 10:34 AM, John Rankin wrote:

On 19/09/11 8:11 AM, Carlos AB wrote:

You did put it all together nicely, but a little bit of care with the
size and proportions would make it look better.
In particular, the body text would be more readable if the width were 
narrower.
To achieve an average of 60-70 characters per line of text, which I 
understand is
optimal (see for example 
http://baymard.com/blog/line-length-readability --
an example of tidy, minimal design, although 17pt Arial?), a width of 
around 45em
is more suitable. A too narrow sidebar could be problematic. The page 
above uses
a sidebar to body ratio of 1:2. It also has serif headings with sans 
body. The
comments are interesting too -- in particular the suggestion to 
increase the

inter-line spacing over the default value.

Bringhurst (The Elements of Typographic Style) recommends an average 
of 66

characters per line.

JR

On 9/18/11, Rogutės Sparnuotosrogu...@googlemail.com  wrote:

Carlos AB (2011-09-13 22:04):

Hi Forgeot, List,

I have created a group Called NewSkinIdeas and posted an initial 
idea

there in

http://www.pmwiki.org/wiki/NewSkinIdeas/CarlosAB

Feel free to comment and post new ideas.

I found the minimal design of your mock-ups attractive and made a skin:
http://demo.neto.li/pmwiki-carlskin/
http://demo.neto.li/pmwiki-carlskin/pub/skins/carlskin/pmwiki.tmpl
http://demo.neto.li/pmwiki-carlskin/pub/skins/carlskin/pmwiki.css



--
John Rankin
Affinity Limited
T 64 4 495 3737
F 64 4 473 7991
M 021 RANKIN
john.ran...@affinity.co.nz
www.affinity.co.nz


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Re: [pmwiki-users] It's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2011-09-18 Thread Rogutės Sparnuotos
Petko Yotov (2011-09-18 20:55):
 On Sunday 18 September 2011 13:18:58, Rogutės Sparnuotos wrote :
  The wordpress.org and textpattern.com examples others posted are too
  loaded for me.
 
 These are sources for ideas more for the pmwiki.org home page than for a new 
 default skin in the distribution. 

 We want a simple, minimal skin for an empty PmWiki installation, that would 
 be 
 easier for new admins to understand and customize. 
 
 For the pmwiki.org home page, we want a well balanced selection of features, 
 content, links and styles to show better the PmWiki potential and continuous 
 development.

Thank you for clarifying.
Though I think that using the same skin for the home page and
installations is a good thing: less to maintain; stays familiar to
newcomers after installation. If pmwiki.org adopts a skin too complex for
distribution, I think that the two skins should at least share layout and
colors.

-- 
--  Rogutės Sparnuotos

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Re: [pmwiki-users] It's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2011-09-18 Thread Petko Yotov
Agreed.

On Monday 19 September 2011 01:17:53, Rogutės Sparnuotos wrote :
 using the same skin for the home page and
 installations is a good thing: less to maintain; stays familiar to
 newcomers after installation. If pmwiki.org adopts a skin too complex for
 distribution, I think that the two skins should at least share layout and
 colors.

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Re: [pmwiki-users] It's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2011-09-18 Thread Rogutės Sparnuotos
ki...@kirpi.it (2011-09-13 00:48):
 I'm not sure Pmwiki would/should/could enter the race with things like
 Wordpress (I like Textpattern a lot more) or any other CMS up to
 TYPO3.
..

Do others really like the presentation trend of textpattern.com,
wordpress.org, contao.org? This trend:

1. Homepage for Symfony 1: http://www.symfony-project.org/
   (a bit like PmWiki?).

2. Homepage for symfony 2: http://symfony.com/
   (did I just visit wordpress.org?).

1. is not perfect, but 2. is everywhere nowadays...

-- 
--  Rogutės Sparnuotos

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Re: [pmwiki-users] It's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2011-09-18 Thread DaveG



On 9/18/2011 7:17 PM, Rogutės Sparnuotos wrote:

Though I think that using the same skin for the home page and
installations is a good thing: less to maintain; stays familiar to
newcomers after installation. If pmwiki.org adopts a skin too complex for
distribution, I think that the two skins should at least share layout and
colors.
It's important to have a simple(ish) skin for newcomers to use in the 
distribution. I don't think it needs to be the same as the one used on 
pmwiki.org.


What we could do is include two skins with the distribution. One is the 
simple version which is active by default from the standard config.php. 
The other we include could be a *slightly* more sophisticated skin which 
would be used on pmwiki.org.


This provides a way to improve the pmwiki.org look and show some pmwiki 
capabilities, as well as providing a simple launch point from a first 
install.



 ~ ~ Dave

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Re: [pmwiki-users] It's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2011-09-18 Thread DaveG



On 9/18/2011 7:57 PM, Rogutės Sparnuotos wrote:

ki...@kirpi.it (2011-09-13 00:48):

I'm not sure Pmwiki would/should/could enter the race with things like
Wordpress (I like Textpattern a lot more) or any other CMS up to
TYPO3.

..

Do others really like the presentation trend of textpattern.com,
wordpress.org, contao.org? This trend:

1. Homepage for Symfony 1: http://www.symfony-project.org/
(a bit like PmWiki?).
Way too busy in terms of sections on the screen. Also too many and 
non-complimentary colors.




2. Homepage for symfony 2: http://symfony.com/
(did I just visit wordpress.org?).
Much nicer, and good use of whitespace. Although I dislike the black bar 
on the top.


The other thing I like about this homepage is the WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO 
CHOOSE SYMFONY? -- exactly the information a first-time visitor is 
likely to want to see.



1. is not perfect, but 2. is everywhere nowadays...

With regards to [2] I don't view high usage as a negative.

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Re: [pmwiki-users] it's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2011-09-17 Thread Carlos AB
I agree, even though I have never worked with people with such disabilities,
It is good to know that they found no problems understanding how PmWiki
differentiates one type of link from the other, and also that people writing
skins for PmWiki have to think about a lot when trying to make a new move.

Note to self. :-)

I also wonder if Pm was thinking about how people using text-based browsers
would differentiate links to non-existent pages, when he created
$PageLinkCreateFmt, the way he did.

If so, than the Creole group haven't thought about everything ... Yet.

Even if there are no problems for visually impaired people to
differentiate PmWiki links, it doesn't say that a dashed border-bottom
is worst than a dotted one or that link css rules  can't get any
better for people with disabilities or at least different.

Another thing that I was thinking, and not related to your e-mail and I
believe more directed to Petko or Pm, is that if skin writers should use
the prefs page/mechanism for skin preferences and even to choose a skin.

That could be used for a lot of things like defining a preference for
fonts (size, family, weight), styling option for links, etc ... It
would go on the lines of what Petko said, in the end of this message :

http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.web.wiki.pmwiki.user/58969

Some skins use a different page for skin options. Should we use a
prefs page, an exclusive page for skin options or both? What would be
best?

CarlosAB

On 9/15/11, tamouse mailing lists tamouse.li...@gmail.com wrote:
 I'm currently working with someone who has two different kinds of
 colourblindness as well as some other vision problems. As far as it
 goes, she is able to read and interpret the current pmwiki front page
 very well. She has a really hard time with a lot of sites with modern
 designs. It seems as though we developers and designers decide on one
 set of presentation aspects and expect one size will fit all. I'm
 trying to develop a more flexible means of theming/skinning/what have
 you that will allow the user to take control if they need to in a more
 easily handled fashion.

 The current pmwiki default skin may not be whizzy, but it does meet
 more end users needs of functionality and usability, even if not their
 sense of aesthetics.

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Re: [pmwiki-users] it's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2011-09-17 Thread V.Krishn
On Sunday, September 18, 2011 03:19:43 AM Carlos AB wrote:
 I agree, even though I have never worked with people with such
 disabilities, It is good to know that they found no problems understanding
 how PmWiki differentiates one type of link from the other, and also that
 people writing skins for PmWiki have to think about a lot when trying to
 make a new move.
 

There is a much less used feature that allows switching of stylesheet without 
using javascript.
Skin providing alternate stylesheet like
1. High contrast
2. Low contrast
3. 16 color
4. High color
..etc.. can help, including adaptiblity to low end devices/screens.

link rel=stylesheet href=style.css type=text/css /
link rel=alternate stylesheet href=highcontrast.css type=text/css 
title=High Contrast Color Style /
link rel=alternate stylesheet href=lowcontrast.css type=text/css 
title=Low Contrast Color Style /

I have tested this feature since firefox 0.9+ and konqueror 3.5+.
I could not locate the functionality in Chromium.

-- 
Regards.
V.Krishn

 Note to self. :-)
 
 I also wonder if Pm was thinking about how people using text-based browsers
 would differentiate links to non-existent pages, when he created
 $PageLinkCreateFmt, the way he did.
 
 If so, than the Creole group haven't thought about everything ... Yet.
 
 Even if there are no problems for visually impaired people to
 differentiate PmWiki links, it doesn't say that a dashed border-bottom
 is worst than a dotted one or that link css rules  can't get any
 better for people with disabilities or at least different.
 
 Another thing that I was thinking, and not related to your e-mail and I
 believe more directed to Petko or Pm, is that if skin writers should use
 the prefs page/mechanism for skin preferences and even to choose a skin.
 
 That could be used for a lot of things like defining a preference for
 fonts (size, family, weight), styling option for links, etc ... It
 would go on the lines of what Petko said, in the end of this message :
 
 http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.web.wiki.pmwiki.user/58969
 
 Some skins use a different page for skin options. Should we use a
 prefs page, an exclusive page for skin options or both? What would be
 best?
 
 CarlosAB
 
 On 9/15/11, tamouse mailing lists tamouse.li...@gmail.com wrote:
  I'm currently working with someone who has two different kinds of
  colourblindness as well as some other vision problems. As far as it
  goes, she is able to read and interpret the current pmwiki front page
  very well. She has a really hard time with a lot of sites with modern
  designs. It seems as though we developers and designers decide on one
  set of presentation aspects and expect one size will fit all. I'm
  trying to develop a more flexible means of theming/skinning/what have
  you that will allow the user to take control if they need to in a more
  easily handled fashion.
  
  The current pmwiki default skin may not be whizzy, but it does meet
  more end users needs of functionality and usability, even if not their
  sense of aesthetics.
 
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Re: [pmwiki-users] it's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2011-09-17 Thread Petko Yotov
On Saturday 17 September 2011 23:49:43, Carlos AB wrote :
 if skin writers should use
 the prefs page/mechanism for skin preferences and even to choose a skin.
 
 That could be used for a lot of things like defining a preference for
 fonts (size, family, weight), styling option for links, etc ...
...
 Some skins use a different page for skin options. Should we use a
 prefs page, an exclusive page for skin options or both? What would be
 best?

Should the skin preferences be accessible to site admins and editors or to 
readers too?

I don't have an answer now, but I added this and other ideas from the 
discussion in the PITS so we don't forget about them:

  http://www.pmwiki.org/wiki/PITS/01265

I've been thinking about an admin interface for some time now. It could be 
used to configure the skin preferences among other things.

Most wiki owners I worked with are not very comfortable editing PHP files. 
PmWiki could be made easier to configure and administrate via some in-wiki 
interface like the ?action=attr function, or like the about:config window in 
Firefox.

For example, a skin or a cookbook script could be just dropped onto the 
server, then enabled and configured from the in-wiki admin interface. Such a 
mechanism will not allow the flexibility of the farm/config/Group/Page php 
files we have now, and everything cannot be configured this way, but many 
things *could* be configured this way. 

Less features could look simpler and easier, and could be enough for people 
who just need a tool for collaborative or faster maintenance of websites 
(rather than a framework for running complex web applications). Most of the 
wikis listed at PmWikiUsers or at SuccessStories are such wikis.

Accidentally, making a software simpler and easier isn't simple or easy. :-) 
Some planning and discussing will be needed about the feature selection, about 
the new API for the recipes. Backwards compatibility should probably be 
preserved, etc., etc...

But this was not the subject of this thread. :-)

Petko

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Re: [pmwiki-users] it's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2011-09-17 Thread tamouse mailing lists
On Sat, Sep 17, 2011 at 5:20 PM, V.Krishn vkris...@gmail.com wrote:
 On Sunday, September 18, 2011 03:19:43 AM Carlos AB wrote:
 I agree, even though I have never worked with people with such
 disabilities, It is good to know that they found no problems understanding
 how PmWiki differentiates one type of link from the other, and also that
 people writing skins for PmWiki have to think about a lot when trying to
 make a new move.


 There is a much less used feature that allows switching of stylesheet without
 using javascript.
 Skin providing alternate stylesheet like
 1. High contrast
 2. Low contrast
 3. 16 color
 4. High color
 ..etc.. can help, including adaptiblity to low end devices/screens.

 link rel=stylesheet href=style.css type=text/css /
 link rel=alternate stylesheet href=highcontrast.css type=text/css
 title=High Contrast Color Style /
 link rel=alternate stylesheet href=lowcontrast.css type=text/css
 title=Low Contrast Color Style /

 I have tested this feature since firefox 0.9+ and konqueror 3.5+.
 I could not locate the functionality in Chromium.

Wow, I have never heard of this feature, Thanks!

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Re: [pmwiki-users] it's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2011-09-16 Thread John Rankin

 I'm sorry, it's not dotted, it's a dashed underline/border-bottom .

 On 9/15/11, Carlos AB cabsec.pmw...@gmail.com wrote:
 [...]

 Does the PmWiki community wants to follow creole rules by the dot, or
 perhaps, by the underline? :-)

And of course PmWiki already uses a dotted (not dashed) border bottom for
links to new pages, but not in blue. So you are correct, there would be
potential for confusion if pmwiki used dotted border bottom for regular
links. My view is that provided there is strong contrast among the text,
link, and visited colours, a bottom rule is not required.

However, those advocating a bottom rule also make a good case. So perhaps
pmwiki might consider a bottom rule that is a solid but lighter colour --
a visible cue, but not a distraction. On mouseover, the lighter colour
could/should switch to the same strong contrast colour as the link text.

In the final analysis, I think what's important is that the default
template and css convey a first impression that the community has thought
about the design, kept it simple, and taken care to get the details right.
For me, that would be a fair summary of what pmwiki offers its users.

JR
-- 
John Rankin


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Re: [pmwiki-users] it's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2011-09-15 Thread John Rankin


horizontally, so long lines don't cause an overflow; avoid underline for
links (use border-bottom on hover instead, if at all); spruce up the

 I want links to be underlined _and_ coloured, I don not want to guess
 what could be a link.

Yes, unless there is a strong contrast between the text colour and the
link colour, this is a problem with many sites, especially, as Petko
notes, when the visited colour is not clearly different.

What is your view of sites where the link border-bottom is dotted? It
makes links more visible, but is less intrusive than a solid rule. The
dotted rule can turn solid on mouseover, of course.

 BTW: What's the benefit of border-bottom (besides different color)?

Underline passes through the letter descenders and makes the words
slightly less readable -- we recognise words in part by the word shape and
underline can obscure this to a (small) degree. The border-bottom option
puts a rule slightly below the descenders. This is a practice borrowed
from print publishing, whereas underlining is carried over from the manual
typewriter. My understanding (and I am not certain of this) is that
mechanical constraints in a typewriter meant the underline physically
could not print below the descenders, unless you moved the carriage up
slightly.

JR
-- 
John Rankin


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Re: [pmwiki-users] It's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2011-09-15 Thread John Rankin

 I agree about Verdana because it has the wrong size:
 http://sbpoley.home.xs4all.nl/webmatters/verdana.html

Yes! As an older reader, I tend to assume that any web site using Verdana
doesn't want me as a visitor. I know I can make the text bigger, but why
should I?

 I'd suggest to use a sans-serif for the menu, and a serif for the
 content, because serif is easier to read when there is lots of text

 this is not necessarily true on screens. Web typography is not paper
 typography.

OTOH, serif for web headings and sans for body text is OK and if done well
gives a professional effect without sacrificing readability. (But not
Georgia!) Although I find as screen resolutions improve, serif body text
bothers me less than it used to -- but there are still a lot of low res
screens around, so it is probably better to stay with sans body text until
the next refresh in 2018!

A fixed width, centered text area could be more readable for bigger
 screens.

 As I wrote, I dislike fixed width design.

Yes and they tend to break if the reader makes the text smaller or bigger.
I note that on geany,org the width scales along with the font size, as it
should.

JR
-- 
John Rankin


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Re: [pmwiki-users] It's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2011-09-15 Thread Kenneth Forsbäck
I'd also want to point out that pmwiki still uses fixed dimensions in 
its skin. I'd recommend moving away from anything fixed (px, pt) to 
relative dimensions (rem, em, %).


And yes, a max-width column, not fixed.

The three Rs of web design: relative, relative, relative.

On 2011-09-15 12:34 pm, John Rankin wrote:



I agree about Verdana because it has the wrong size:
http://sbpoley.home.xs4all.nl/webmatters/verdana.html


Yes! As an older reader, I tend to assume that any web site using Verdana
doesn't want me as a visitor. I know I can make the text bigger, but why
should I?



I'd suggest to use a sans-serif for the menu, and a serif for the
content, because serif is easier to read when there is lots of text


this is not necessarily true on screens. Web typography is not paper
typography.


OTOH, serif for web headings and sans for body text is OK and if done well
gives a professional effect without sacrificing readability. (But not
Georgia!) Although I find as screen resolutions improve, serif body text
bothers me less than it used to -- but there are still a lot of low res
screens around, so it is probably better to stay with sans body text until
the next refresh in 2018!



A fixed width, centered text area could be more readable for bigger
screens.


As I wrote, I dislike fixed width design.


Yes and they tend to break if the reader makes the text smaller or bigger.
I note that on geany,org the width scales along with the font size, as it
should.

JR


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Re: [pmwiki-users] it's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2011-09-15 Thread Oliver Betz
John Rankin wrote:

[...]

What is your view of sites where the link border-bottom is dotted? It

o.k. for me

makes links more visible, but is less intrusive than a solid rule. The
dotted rule can turn solid on mouseover, of course.

 BTW: What's the benefit of border-bottom (besides different color)?

Underline passes through the letter descenders and makes the words
slightly less readable -- we recognise words in part by the word shape and
underline can obscure this to a (small) degree. The border-bottom option
puts a rule slightly below the descenders. This is a practice borrowed

I see, thanks for the explanation.

Oliver


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Re: [pmwiki-users] it's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2011-09-15 Thread tamouse mailing lists
I'm currently working with someone who has two different kinds of
colourblindness as well as some other vision problems. As far as it
goes, she is able to read and interpret the current pmwiki front page
very well. She has a really hard time with a lot of sites with modern
designs. It seems as though we developers and designers decide on one
set of presentation aspects and expect one size will fit all. I'm
trying to develop a more flexible means of theming/skinning/what have
you that will allow the user to take control if they need to in a more
easily handled fashion.

The current pmwiki default skin may not be whizzy, but it does meet
more end users needs of functionality and usability, even if not their
sense of aesthetics.

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Re: [pmwiki-users] it's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2011-09-15 Thread Carlos AB
Wiki creole says that we should use a dotted underline to flag a link
to a non existent page and I believe it is a dotted border-bottom.

Should we respect that since PmWiki supports creole and I believe that
this particular rule of creole was done that way to also give support
for people that are visually impaired.

Also, PmWiki allows us to change the fmt of how links to non existant
pages look like, trough $LinkPageCreateFmt .

This is good for people who build skins as the actual
$LinkPageCreateFmt creates two links for one markup, I had to hide the
second link to create a different style of sidebar once and having a
skin to change the format of $LinkPageCreateFmt doesn't sound like a
good idea and plus it would create more problems.

Does the PmWiki community wants to follow creole rules by the dot, or
perhaps, by the underline? :-)

CarlosAB

On 9/15/11, John Rankin john.ran...@affinity.co.nz wrote:


horizontally, so long lines don't cause an overflow; avoid underline for
links (use border-bottom on hover instead, if at all); spruce up the

 I want links to be underlined _and_ coloured, I don not want to guess
 what could be a link.

 Yes, unless there is a strong contrast between the text colour and the
 link colour, this is a problem with many sites, especially, as Petko
 notes, when the visited colour is not clearly different.

 What is your view of sites where the link border-bottom is dotted? It
 makes links more visible, but is less intrusive than a solid rule. The
 dotted rule can turn solid on mouseover, of course.

 BTW: What's the benefit of border-bottom (besides different color)?

 Underline passes through the letter descenders and makes the words
 slightly less readable -- we recognise words in part by the word shape and
 underline can obscure this to a (small) degree. The border-bottom option
 puts a rule slightly below the descenders. This is a practice borrowed
 from print publishing, whereas underlining is carried over from the manual
 typewriter. My understanding (and I am not certain of this) is that
 mechanical constraints in a typewriter meant the underline physically
 could not print below the descenders, unless you moved the carriage up
 slightly.

 JR
 --
 John Rankin

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Re: [pmwiki-users] it's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2011-09-15 Thread Carlos AB
I'm sorry, it's not dotted, it's a dashed underline/border-bottom .

On 9/15/11, Carlos AB cabsec.pmw...@gmail.com wrote:
 Wiki creole says that we should use a dotted underline to flag a link
 to a non existent page and I believe it is a dotted border-bottom.

 Should we respect that since PmWiki supports creole and I believe that
 this particular rule of creole was done that way to also give support
 for people that are visually impaired.

 Also, PmWiki allows us to change the fmt of how links to non existant
 pages look like, trough $LinkPageCreateFmt .

 This is good for people who build skins as the actual
 $LinkPageCreateFmt creates two links for one markup, I had to hide the
 second link to create a different style of sidebar once and having a
 skin to change the format of $LinkPageCreateFmt doesn't sound like a
 good idea and plus it would create more problems.

 Does the PmWiki community wants to follow creole rules by the dot, or
 perhaps, by the underline? :-)

 CarlosAB

 On 9/15/11, John Rankin john.ran...@affinity.co.nz wrote:


horizontally, so long lines don't cause an overflow; avoid underline for
links (use border-bottom on hover instead, if at all); spruce up the

 I want links to be underlined _and_ coloured, I don not want to guess
 what could be a link.

 Yes, unless there is a strong contrast between the text colour and the
 link colour, this is a problem with many sites, especially, as Petko
 notes, when the visited colour is not clearly different.

 What is your view of sites where the link border-bottom is dotted? It
 makes links more visible, but is less intrusive than a solid rule. The
 dotted rule can turn solid on mouseover, of course.

 BTW: What's the benefit of border-bottom (besides different color)?

 Underline passes through the letter descenders and makes the words
 slightly less readable -- we recognise words in part by the word shape
 and
 underline can obscure this to a (small) degree. The border-bottom option
 puts a rule slightly below the descenders. This is a practice borrowed
 from print publishing, whereas underlining is carried over from the
 manual
 typewriter. My understanding (and I am not certain of this) is that
 mechanical constraints in a typewriter meant the underline physically
 could not print below the descenders, unless you moved the carriage up
 slightly.

 JR
 --
 John Rankin


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Re: [pmwiki-users] it's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2011-09-15 Thread jdd-gmane

Le 16/09/2011 00:27, tamouse mailing lists a écrit :


set of presentation aspects and expect one size will fit all. I'm
trying to develop a more flexible means of theming/skinning/what have
you that will allow the user to take control if they need to in a more
easily handled fashion.


fine. May some sort of drop down list that shows part of the skin, so 
anypeople can look at the result (try sometime to set your page to an 
alien langage, like thai for french people, and try to understand 
where you are :-))


about colors, approximately 10% of the french population have some 
sort of color problem. This is very well known in some works. And, of 
course no one have the same than the other!


jdd


--
http://www.dodin.net
http://pizzanetti.fr


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Re: [pmwiki-users] It's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2011-09-14 Thread Oliver Betz
Forgeot Eric wrote:

[...]

 Again, I don't necessary thing everything should be redesigned, but a
 few adjustement could help to look better. The geany website (powered
 by PmWiki) is a good example of an attractive design, yet quite close
 to the original : http://geany.org/ . There are still blue links, but

what's your aversion to blue links? Did you read Jakob Nielsen?

[...]

 The reference to microsoft-only fonts could be avoided: arial,
 verdana. Serif, sans-serif could be enough.

I agree about Verdana because it has the wrong size:
http://sbpoley.home.xs4all.nl/webmatters/verdana.html

To Rogut?s Sparnuotos: I _definitely_ wouldn't use web fonts for
PmWiki!

 I'd suggest to use a sans-serif for the menu, and a serif for the
 content, because serif is easier to read when there is lots of text

this is not necessarily true on screens. Web typography is not paper
typography.

A fixed width, centered text area could be more readable for bigger screens.

As I wrote, I dislike fixed width design.

Oliver


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Re: [pmwiki-users] It's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2011-09-14 Thread Rogutės Sparnuotos
Oliver Betz (2011-09-14 09:31):
 To Rogutės Sparnuotos: I _definitely_ wouldn't use web fonts for
 PmWiki!

I wrote .. and a comment could point to pmwiki.org/wiki/Cookbook/Fonts,
which could point to google.com/webfonts, which could be translated to
something like this in the default skin:

body {
  /* For font recipies, see http://pmwiki.org/wiki/Cookbook/Fonts */
  font-family: serif;
}

I didn't extensively test this, but the default for serif and sans-serif
is pretty good nowadays (on a modern browser and OS).

-- 
--  Rogutės Sparnuotos

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Re: [pmwiki-users] It's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2011-09-13 Thread John Rankin

 I'm not sure Pmwiki would/should/could enter the race with things like
 Wordpress (I like Textpattern a lot more) or any other CMS up to
 TYPO3.
 Pmwiki is a wiki, and a file-based one.
 Which puts its roots into a *very* different ground.
 No matter how powerful or useful pmwiki may be, first-time visitors
 and possible adopters should be aware of this.
 Definitely.

OTOH pmwiki ought not discourage first-time visitors who see a dated look
and may assume, incorrectly, that the software is dated. First impressions
count. You are right to question the wisdom of trying to compete with
insert preferred CMS here, eg silverstripe.  This is neither necessary
nor desirable in my view. But it is entirely practical to lift the quality
of pmwiki.org's first impression to that of (for example) the default
Drupal home page or the default WordPress theme, with not much more than
an improved style sheet.

Out of the box, pmwiki needs to meet a minimum acceptable presentation
standard and the bar is higher than it was 6 years ago. As you say:

snip

 That said, and on the other hand, for many needs pmwiki *does* compare
 (and could compete) with some of the tools I mentioned above.
 For this reason, a fresh look would be really fine (and bring new
 people to the community).

JR
-- 
John Rankin


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Re: [pmwiki-users] It's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2011-09-13 Thread Petko Yotov
On Monday 12 September 2011 22:19:04, Forgeot Eric wrote :
 The drupal website is using blue link, but with a different color than the
 blue which was common during the geocities era: the design is classy and
 elegant, yet it's simple

For me the Geocities era was more about blinking and scrolling text, animated 
GIFs, tiled background images and lots of under construction and optimized 
for MSIE signs. :-)

I'll only comment on colored underlined links. I mostly agree that we could 
improve the homepage and the documentation.

Contrary to what has been said, the default PmWiki skin does *not* force the 
color or the decoration of links, visitors can configure their browsers to 
show the links the way they prefer seeing links.

There are many usability studies about how people behave on a website or 
intranet=wiki. By people I mean normal readers and editors who have some 
ordinary task (find a specific information or change some text), neither site 
admins, nor style designers, nor top users very experienced with the software 
or the website structure. It might be interesting for a site owner, for an 
admin or for a skin designer to keep themselves informed about the findings of 
these studies, for example:

  http://www.useit.com/alertbox/

Links need to be easily differentiated from other text, this is a usability 
need and also common sense if you know how people read. It is acceptable to 
have undecorated links in menus, sidebars and lists of links, but in a page 
body it should be clear what is a link:

  http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20040510.html

(This was observed in 2004, and our eyes and brains haven't evolved too much 
since then.)

The underlined part is not a requirement but it is recommended as it is 
helpful for color-blind users, users with lower vision, or just older people 
like most of us become every day.

People do not read web pages like they read printed text. People scan a web 
page looking for keywords, and those keywords are the first 2-3 words of a 
paragraph, bold or italic words, and links.

  http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9710a.html

While this was written in 1997, today with thousands if not millions *times* 
more websites, with better search engines, with information overload, lack of 
time and more experience or habit of the internet, users read even less today 
than in 1997. These conclusions are still current, even more accented, as you 
can see in publications about more recent studies, eg. this from 2008:

  http://www.useit.com/alertbox/percent-text-read.html

 http://drupal.org/documentation/customization/tutorials/beginners-cookbook
 
 The same goes for this localized version: http://drupalfr.org/documentation

Both these documentation sites have a defect: visited and unvisited links look 
the same way. This is a major usability problem, especially for large sites 
(lots of pages, lot of information) and the Top 3 worse design mistake of all 
times. When people search for something, if they don't know which pages they 
have already visited, they turn in circles, visiting the same pages again and 
again, and getting frustrated.

  http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20040503.html
  http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9605.html

 There are some trends in webdesign. It's not a shame to follow them,
 especially for a publishing tool. The current design is at least 6 year
 old: http://web.archive.org/web/20050913023010/http://pmwiki.org/

It would be a shame if following a fashion kills function and usability both 
for editors and for readers. But I'd think it was caused by ignorance (lack of 
information or lack of interest) rather than, say, stupidity. It is fixable.

Petko

P.S. I've been involved with a quite large wiki community (50-200 experienced, 
intelligent editors active weekly, 100K+ pages, thousands of readers). Since 
2003 the links were like on pmwiki, browser-default which in most browsers is 
underlined and blue. Every once in a while, a newcomer editor or even a 
visitor (this is a fairly democratic community) comes to tell us that he 
doesn't like underlined links and that we are retarded to use them. The 
community rejected by a vote one proposition to force non-underlined links, 
and we also held a poll open to editors and to readers and the results were 
not conclusive: most active editors stated that they preferred underlined 
links, and about half of the unregistered visitors who voted too.
I should add that last year the site owner unilaterally and without consulting 
the community (or the web usability guidelines) changed the default skin and 
links now are no longer underlined. But as editors can set in their personal 
preferences underlined links, and even switch back to the old skin, nobody 
bothered to organize a protest or another vote. :-)

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Re: [pmwiki-users] it's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2011-09-13 Thread Oliver Betz
John Rankin wrote:

[...]

Before changing the default skin, it helps to know what the skin design
goals are. Otherwise, it's hard to choose between reasonable design

very true.

alternatives. Drawing on this and earlier posts, as a starter for 10:

- as the site is text-intensive, adopt good web typography practice (see
for example http://webtypography.net/)

I wonder why they didn't limit the width of the text column.

[...]

horizontally, so long lines don't cause an overflow; avoid underline for
links (use border-bottom on hover instead, if at all); spruce up the

I want links to be underlined _and_ coloured, I don not want to guess
what could be a link.

BTW: What's the benefit of border-bottom (besides different color)?

headings; titles ought to default to spaced wikiwords, rather than
unspaced ones; more white space around the text.

This depends on content.

Oliver


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Re: [pmwiki-users] It's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2011-09-13 Thread Oliver Betz
ki...@kirpi.it wrote:

I'm far from a tech guy, but having the standard skin with a fixed
width (which seems to be a great request by many) should be not much
more than enclosing it all into a

fixed width is evil IMNSHO. Consider small devices!

Readers don't want _fixed_ width, but those browsing with maximized
windows need an upper _limit_ for width.

It's not too easy to make a robust variable (but limited) width skin
not breaking with unusual browser settings! Consider people using
text zoom.

Oliver


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Re: [pmwiki-users] it's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2011-09-13 Thread Oliver Betz
Chris Cox wrote:

[...]

As an example... the logo... it should be an included page.  In fact it could 
be 
a multi-fall back included page... so that it could change based on context 
even.  And the same could be done for page banners and the like.  All of this 
is 

Can you suggest a simple method of selecting a logo or other skin
defined image depending on page content?

Oliver


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[pmwiki-users] It's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2011-09-13 Thread Forgeot Eric
someone posted (off list):

Hmm, perhaps you could show what you'd do differently?

I'm working on something, but I'm not a special talented designer, and I don't 
know much about CSS. (I often end up on the same designs)


I'd be happy though to participate to a contest, a brainstorming or a new 
group on PmWiki, as someone suggested.


Again, I don't necessary thing everything should be redesigned, but a few 
adjustement could help to look better. The geany website (powered by PmWiki) is 
a good example of an attractive design, yet quite close to the original : 
http://geany.org/ . There are still blue links, but it's not  color:blue; . 
It's not perfect (followed links are not noticeable, it's still using tables), 
but it doesn't give a bad first impression.

Also I don't think the default design is **that** easy to configurate, 
especially because of the tables which are probably necessary to remove (I 
don't find they render good in text based browsers, in links it's ok, but not 
in lynx).

Also the menu is called wikileft, which needs to be renamed if the user wishes 
to put it on the right.

The reference to microsoft-only fonts could be avoided: arial, verdana. Serif, 
sans-serif could be enough.

I'd suggest to use a sans-serif for the menu, and a serif for the content, 
because serif is easier to read when there is lots of text (but this could be 
discussed)

A fixed width, centered text area could be more readable for bigger screens. 
For smaller ones, the current theme is not adapted, in particular because of 
the left menu: on my phone, I have to scroll to be able to read the text. For 
helping people reading from a mobile phone or small screen, it's better to use 
this kind of recipe: http://www.pmwiki.org/wiki/Cookbook/DetectMobile together 
with this kind of skin (I've made a derivative for my websites): 
http://www.pmwiki.org/wiki/Cookbook/IPMWikiSkin

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Re: [pmwiki-users] It's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2011-09-13 Thread ki...@kirpi.it
Completely agree, John!

Luigi

On 13/09/2011, John Rankin john.ran...@affinity.co.nz wrote:

 I'm not sure Pmwiki would/should/could enter the race with things like
 Wordpress (I like Textpattern a lot more) or any other CMS up to
 TYPO3.
 Pmwiki is a wiki, and a file-based one.
 Which puts its roots into a *very* different ground.
 No matter how powerful or useful pmwiki may be, first-time visitors
 and possible adopters should be aware of this.
 Definitely.

 OTOH pmwiki ought not discourage first-time visitors who see a dated look
 and may assume, incorrectly, that the software is dated. First impressions
 count. You are right to question the wisdom of trying to compete with
 insert preferred CMS here, eg silverstripe.  This is neither necessary
 nor desirable in my view. But it is entirely practical to lift the quality
 of pmwiki.org's first impression to that of (for example) the default
 Drupal home page or the default WordPress theme, with not much more than
 an improved style sheet.

 Out of the box, pmwiki needs to meet a minimum acceptable presentation
 standard and the bar is higher than it was 6 years ago. As you say:

snip

 That said, and on the other hand, for many needs pmwiki *does* compare
 (and could compete) with some of the tools I mentioned above.
 For this reason, a fresh look would be really fine (and bring new
 people to the community).

 JR
 --
 John Rankin



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Re: [pmwiki-users] It's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2011-09-13 Thread Carlos AB
Not dumb at all Paul. I was in doubt too on how to name it, but I went
with the name NewSkinIdeas for the new group, I believe it is not so
bad and I posted an idea there and also reveled my inspiration for it.
:-)

Take look and write whatever you wanna write on that page/group I have created.

I hope you don't mind I have sent your e-mail in reply to the list.

CarlosAB

On 9/13/11, Paul Giacherio paulgiache...@gmail.com wrote:
 Sounds like a dumb question, but where is the most logical place for a new
 group discussion page?




 On Mon, Sep 12, 2011 at 6:13 PM, Carlos AB cabsec.pmw...@gmail.com wrote:

 I believe It is time for a change too.

 Why not create a new group on PmWiki and publish there any ideas we
 may have, write links, upload photos, create a example designs with
 wiki markup and vote for the best ideas.

 Then we can get enough references to think with and come up with the best
 idea.

 A believe a new logo is also a good idea.

 CarlosAB

 On 9/12/11, John Rankin john.ran...@affinity.co.nz wrote:
  On 13/09/11 8:19 AM, Forgeot Eric wrote:
  The drupal website is using blue link, but with a different color than
 the
  blue which was common during the geocities era: the design is classy
  and
  elegant, yet it's simple:
 
 
 http://drupal.org/documentation/customization/tutorials/beginners-cookbook
  Interesting that the site uses a right side bar, which is common on
  author-centric wordpress themes.
 
  The same goes for this localized version:
  http://drupalfr.org/documentation
 
  There are some trends in webdesign. It's not a shame to follow them,
  especially for a publishing tool.
  Yes and especially for a publishing tool that has as its first design
  principle, Favour writers over readers.
  The current design is at least 6 year old:
  http://web.archive.org/web/20050913023010/http://pmwiki.org/
  Good designs last a long time, but a face-lift can make a good design
  better. It would not take much:
 
  - bring the css up to date (links, headings, body width, etc)
 
  - consider switching to a right side-bar (or make this a
  local/config.php option to show how easy it is to customise pmwiki
  templates)
 
  JR
 
  --
  John Rankin
  Affinity Limited
 
 
 
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Re: [pmwiki-users] It's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2011-09-13 Thread Carlos AB
Hi Forgeot, List,

I have created a group Called NewSkinIdeas and posted an initial idea there in

http://www.pmwiki.org/wiki/NewSkinIdeas/CarlosAB

Feel free to comment and post new ideas.

CarlosAB

On 9/13/11, Forgeot Eric eforg...@yahoo.fr wrote:
 someone posted (off list):

Hmm, perhaps you could show what you'd do differently?

 I'm working on something, but I'm not a special talented designer, and I
 don't know much about CSS. (I often end up on the same designs)


 I'd be happy though to participate to a contest, a brainstorming or a new
 group on PmWiki, as someone suggested.


 Again, I don't necessary thing everything should be redesigned, but a few
 adjustement could help to look better. The geany website (powered by PmWiki)
 is a good example of an attractive design, yet quite close to the original :
 http://geany.org/ . There are still blue links, but it's not  color:blue; .
 It's not perfect (followed links are not noticeable, it's still using
 tables), but it doesn't give a bad first impression.

 Also I don't think the default design is **that** easy to configurate,
 especially because of the tables which are probably necessary to remove (I
 don't find they render good in text based browsers, in links it's ok, but
 not in lynx).

 Also the menu is called wikileft, which needs to be renamed if the user
 wishes to put it on the right.

 The reference to microsoft-only fonts could be avoided: arial, verdana.
 Serif, sans-serif could be enough.

 I'd suggest to use a sans-serif for the menu, and a serif for the content,
 because serif is easier to read when there is lots of text (but this could
 be discussed)

 A fixed width, centered text area could be more readable for bigger screens.
 For smaller ones, the current theme is not adapted, in particular because of
 the left menu: on my phone, I have to scroll to be able to read the text.
 For helping people reading from a mobile phone or small screen, it's better
 to use this kind of recipe: http://www.pmwiki.org/wiki/Cookbook/DetectMobile
 together with this kind of skin (I've made a derivative for my websites):
 http://www.pmwiki.org/wiki/Cookbook/IPMWikiSkin

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Re: [pmwiki-users] It's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2011-09-13 Thread Rogutės Sparnuotos
Forgeot Eric (2011-09-13 22:15):
...
 Again, I don't necessary thing everything should be redesigned, but a few 
 adjustement could help to look better. The geany website (powered by PmWiki) 
 is a good example of an attractive design, yet quite close to the original : 
 http://geany.org/ . There are still blue links, but it's not  color:blue; . 
 It's not perfect (followed links are not noticeable, it's still using 
 tables), but it doesn't give a bad first impression.

The fixed width and centered box at geany.org looks kind of squeezed even
with 1280x1024 resolution. The colors need more contrast: dark-gray on
light-gray for text and soft-blue on light-gray for links isn't good for
the eyes. Moreover, pmwiki.org skin adapts better to smaller widths, and
it only needs 'max-width: 60em;' on #wikitext to adapt better to wide
screens (and perhaps some tuning to padding).

 Also I don't think the default design is **that** easy to configurate, 
 especially because of the tables which are probably necessary to remove (I 
 don't find they render good in text based browsers, in links it's ok, but not 
 in lynx).

I didn't find it that easy to configure either. But I have a bad habit of
starting from scratch...

 Also the menu is called wikileft, which needs to be renamed if the user 
 wishes to put it on the right.

Yes, a skin update would do good to rename it to wikinav, wikiside or
something.

 The reference to microsoft-only fonts could be avoided: arial, verdana. 
 Serif, sans-serif could be enough.

Yes, and a comment could point to pmwiki.org/wiki/Cookbook/Fonts, which
could point to google.com/webfonts :)

 I'd suggest to use a sans-serif for the menu, and a serif for the content, 
 because serif is easier to read when there is lots of text (but this could be 
 discussed)

It really depends on the font and the text size, not on font type.

 A fixed width, centered text area could be more readable for bigger screens. 
 For smaller ones, the current theme is not adapted, in particular because of 
 the left menu: on my phone, I have to scroll to be able to read the text. For 
 helping people reading from a mobile phone or small screen, it's better to 
 use this kind of recipe: http://www.pmwiki.org/wiki/Cookbook/DetectMobile 
 together with this kind of skin (I've made a derivative for my websites): 
 http://www.pmwiki.org/wiki/Cookbook/IPMWikiSkin

If #wikileft were floated, you would still have to scroll, but vertically
instead of horizontally. Not sure which is easier with mobile browsers.
I think that the default skin shouldn't resort to user agent sniffing (ala
DetectMobile), but it could try to adapt better with CSS.

-- 
--  Rogutės Sparnuotos

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Re: [pmwiki-users] it's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2011-09-12 Thread Kenneth Forsbäck
I like blue, underlined links, it makes all links clear and easy to 
spot. That's the whole point of an effective design: simplicity, 
clarity, usability.


The only gripe I have with the pmwiki appearance is the layout. Of 
course, there is nothing that says you couldn't still include the old 
skin in the package. However, I would like to see something narrower, 
wide pages like in pmwiki and even wikipedia are straining to read, our 
eyes prefer a narrower column of text.


You could simply link several stylesheets and allow the user to select 
between a wide and narrow layout.


Also, it should switch to a DIV/CSS based layout and drop the table.

~ Kenneth

On 2011-09-11 10:35 pm, Forgeot Eric wrote:

Hello,

why not proposing a new default pmwiki skin?

- for the default installation
- and for the http://www.pmwiki.org website?

The current one is not attractive at all (blue, underlined links), it looks 
like it was designed in 1992, and therefore, it give the impression PmWiki is 
backward technology, and not powerful at all.

Visit http://wordpress.org/ and http://www.pmwiki.org
Which one is giving more confidence and self confidence?

I think a skin like this one could be great: 
http://www.pmwiki.org/wiki/Cookbook/AlalikeSkin

Or you could drive a contest for a default skin: it would give not only a 
better default skin, but also several new ones for the skin collection!

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Re: [pmwiki-users] it's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2011-09-12 Thread John Rankin

 On Sun, Sep 11, 2011 at 08:35:59PM +0100, Forgeot Eric wrote:
 why not proposing a new default pmwiki skin?

 - for the default installation
 - and for the http://www.pmwiki.org website?

 The current one is not attractive at all (blue, underlined links), it
 looks like it was designed in 1992, and therefore, it give the
 impression PmWiki is backward technology, and not powerful at all.

 Just a reminder that part of the reason behind the simplicity of
 PmWiki's default skin is to make it easier for people (who may not
 have a lot of HTML/CSS knowledge) to see how/where to customize it.

 This isn't to say that I'm voting in favor of the current skin,
 just that how it looks isn't the _only_ criterion.

 I'd be fine with a high-quality and slightly complex skin if
 we also have a good how to customize your own skin tutorial
 to go along with it.


Before changing the default skin, it helps to know what the skin design
goals are. Otherwise, it's hard to choose between reasonable design
alternatives. Drawing on this and earlier posts, as a starter for 10:

- as the site is text-intensive, adopt good web typography practice (see
for example http://webtypography.net/)

- make the template and css as simple as possible, but no simpler (it's
not a show off what's possible exercise; rather, the intent is to show
that it's easy to look good)

- demonstrate the power of pmwiki templates, rather than the power of css
or javascript; the template capability is the unique strength to highlight

It would not take much for the site to make a significantly better first
impression. For example: make the wikibody about 45em wide and centre the
sidebar and body on the screen; allow preformatted text to scroll
horizontally, so long lines don't cause an overflow; avoid underline for
links (use border-bottom on hover instead, if at all); spruce up the
headings; titles ought to default to spaced wikiwords, rather than
unspaced ones; more white space around the text.

I'm sure there are other simple things that would modernise the look
without adding undue complexity.

JR
-- 
John Rankin


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[pmwiki-users] It's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2011-09-12 Thread ki...@kirpi.it
One of the reasons I adopted pmwiki was its easy of use.
Its default skin is a very good starting point, which:
- allows to understand how the whole thing works (not bad as you are
starting over)
- is very useable (despite the narrow column fashion of today) and
blue/underlined links are still a good standard choice (old people are
still there, so are visually impaired people, and a lot of other
people want to just easily *use* the internet, not just keep on
guessing where links could be on a page)
- is easily customizable.

This does not mean there is no reason to enhance/renew it in some
details, but I still would consider the default skin a real
default/basic one.
Without too many features, which find instead their own right place in
the alternative skins, most of which are sound and interesting, like
Hans' Triad (which i really like) or DaveG skins (just naming some).
Such alternative skins could perhaps be more preeminently be shown off.

So, if we need to make impression to newcomers, maybe a splash screen
at the root page plus a better choice of fonts, colors and images
could probably do.
I wouldn't spoil/complicate the standard/default skin/approach.

I believe that simple is better, as a starting point.

Luigi

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Re: [pmwiki-users] it's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2011-09-12 Thread Laatz, Erek
Dear all,

another proposal:
As PM wrote, the actual default skin is a good starting point for
personal customizations. But what about an image gallery with some
screenshots of the several skins offered in the skin section of the
pmwiki-site. The images could be linked to the skin section, where all
relevant informations are documentated.

The image gallery could be linked in the upper area of the PmWiki
default site so that everybody has the possibility to see how powerful
PmWiki is (and of course - how easy customizations could be performed)...

Best regards and all of you a nice day,

Erek


At 11.09.2011 21:35, Forgeot Eric wrote:
 Hello,

 why not proposing a new default pmwiki skin?

 - for the default installation
 - and for the http://www.pmwiki.org website?

 The current one is not attractive at all (blue, underlined links), it looks 
 like it was designed in 1992, and therefore, it give the impression PmWiki is 
 backward technology, and not powerful at all.

 Visit http://wordpress.org/ and http://www.pmwiki.org
 Which one is giving more confidence and self confidence? 

 I think a skin like this one could be great: 
 http://www.pmwiki.org/wiki/Cookbook/AlalikeSkin

 Or you could drive a contest for a default skin: it would give not only a 
 better default skin, but also several new ones for the skin collection!

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Re: [pmwiki-users] it's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2011-09-12 Thread c...@endlessnow.com

 Cant speak for the pmwiki site...but tables do allow for some structure inside 
of text based browsers... If that's interesting anymore.



- Reply message -
From: Kenneth Forsbäck kenneth.forsb...@bob.fi
To: pmwiki-users@pmichaud.com
Subject: [pmwiki-users] it's time to change pmwiki default skin!
Date: Mon, Sep 12, 2011 3:28 am


I like blue, underlined links, it makes all links clear and easy to spot. 
That's the whole point of an effective design: simplicity, clarity, usability.

The only gripe I have with the pmwiki appearance is the layout. Of course, 
there is nothing that says you couldn't still include the old skin in the 
package. However, I would like to see something narrower, wide pages like in 
pmwiki and even wikipedia are straining to read, our eyes prefer a narrower 
column of text.

You could simply link several stylesheets and allow the user to select between 
a wide and narrow layout.

Also, it should switch to a DIV/CSS based layout and drop the table.

~ Kenneth

On 2011-09-11 10:35 pm, Forgeot Eric wrote:
 Hello,

 why not proposing a new default pmwiki skin?

 - for the default installation
 - and for the http://www.pmwiki.org website?

 The current one is not attractive at all (blue, underlined links), it looks 
 like it was designed in 1992, and therefore, it give the impression PmWiki is 
 backward technology, and not powerful at all.

 Visit http://wordpress.org/ and http://www.pmwiki.org
 Which one is giving more confidence and self confidence?

 I think a skin like this one could be great: 
 http://www.pmwiki.org/wiki/Cookbook/AlalikeSkin

 Or you could drive a contest for a default skin: it would give not only a 
 better default skin, but also several new ones for the skin collection!

 ___
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 pmwiki-users@pmichaud.com
 http://www.pmichaud.com/mailman/listinfo/pmwiki-users


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[pmwiki-users] It's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2011-09-12 Thread Forgeot Eric
The drupal website is using blue link, but with a different color than the blue 
which was common during the geocities era: the design is classy and elegant, 
yet it's simple:

http://drupal.org/documentation/customization/tutorials/beginners-cookbook


The same goes for this localized version: http://drupalfr.org/documentation

There are some trends in webdesign. It's not a shame to follow them, especially 
for a publishing tool. The current design is at least 6 year old: 
http://web.archive.org/web/20050913023010/http://pmwiki.org/


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Re: [pmwiki-users] It's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2011-09-12 Thread John Rankin

On 13/09/11 8:19 AM, Forgeot Eric wrote:

The drupal website is using blue link, but with a different color than the blue 
which was common during the geocities era: the design is classy and elegant, 
yet it's simple:

http://drupal.org/documentation/customization/tutorials/beginners-cookbook
Interesting that the site uses a right side bar, which is common on 
author-centric wordpress themes.


The same goes for this localized version: http://drupalfr.org/documentation

There are some trends in webdesign. It's not a shame to follow them, especially 
for a publishing tool.
Yes and especially for a publishing tool that has as its first design 
principle, Favour writers over readers.

The current design is at least 6 year old: 
http://web.archive.org/web/20050913023010/http://pmwiki.org/
Good designs last a long time, but a face-lift can make a good design 
better. It would not take much:


- bring the css up to date (links, headings, body width, etc)

- consider switching to a right side-bar (or make this a 
local/config.php option to show how easy it is to customise pmwiki 
templates)


JR

--
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Affinity Limited



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Re: [pmwiki-users] It's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2011-09-12 Thread ki...@kirpi.it
I'm far from a tech guy, but having the standard skin with a fixed
width (which seems to be a great request by many) should be not much
more than enclosing it all into a
div style=width:800px;margin:0 auto; (sort of)
or a similar thing with tables.
(Actually, it needs a slightly better effort, but my example still holds true)
I mean: as long as it is clearly noted in the html/css, I think it
should not be a revolution, and would be fine to try it.
A good enhancement, probably.

As far as tables are concerned, I'm sorry to confirm: they are not
dead. There is still need of them in day-to-day life. Too many reasons
for this.
A pure css skin is doable of course (there is already a pure css
standard pmwiki skin, unless I'm wrong), yet it is neither necessarily
better nor (mind) easier to write and maintain.
I wouldn't be too religious about it.

Having logo, search, and other parts of the structure, be included as
separate pages, would probably also be a sensible choice today. Would
it be a problem? Would it increase much the server load for every page
load?

SideBar is a special beast. It is nice to have it ready on the page.
But I remember (am I wrong?) that there were issues (it doesn't run
javascript, or it loads very very early not allowing some handling of
page data, or something the like).
That could be a key problem, in order to make the standard skin more
flexible and usable by writers.

All in all I like the standard skin as it is now, and would just make
those changes that make it *better* for the writers.

Leaving the impact factor to other/alternative skins, a specially
designed splash screen, or some tasty choices of
fonts/colors/sizes/pictures.

Luigi

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Re: [pmwiki-users] It's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2011-09-12 Thread Carlos AB
I believe It is time for a change too.

Why not create a new group on PmWiki and publish there any ideas we
may have, write links, upload photos, create a example designs with
wiki markup and vote for the best ideas.

Then we can get enough references to think with and come up with the best idea.

A believe a new logo is also a good idea.

CarlosAB

On 9/12/11, John Rankin john.ran...@affinity.co.nz wrote:
 On 13/09/11 8:19 AM, Forgeot Eric wrote:
 The drupal website is using blue link, but with a different color than the
 blue which was common during the geocities era: the design is classy and
 elegant, yet it's simple:

 http://drupal.org/documentation/customization/tutorials/beginners-cookbook
 Interesting that the site uses a right side bar, which is common on
 author-centric wordpress themes.

 The same goes for this localized version:
 http://drupalfr.org/documentation

 There are some trends in webdesign. It's not a shame to follow them,
 especially for a publishing tool.
 Yes and especially for a publishing tool that has as its first design
 principle, Favour writers over readers.
 The current design is at least 6 year old:
 http://web.archive.org/web/20050913023010/http://pmwiki.org/
 Good designs last a long time, but a face-lift can make a good design
 better. It would not take much:

 - bring the css up to date (links, headings, body width, etc)

 - consider switching to a right side-bar (or make this a
 local/config.php option to show how easy it is to customise pmwiki
 templates)

 JR

 --
 John Rankin
 Affinity Limited



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Re: [pmwiki-users] It's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2011-09-12 Thread ki...@kirpi.it
I'm not sure Pmwiki would/should/could enter the race with things like
Wordpress (I like Textpattern a lot more) or any other CMS up to
TYPO3.
Pmwiki is a wiki, and a file-based one.
Which puts its roots into a *very* different ground.
No matter how powerful or useful pmwiki may be, first-time visitors
and possible adopters should be aware of this.
Definitely.

Letting them believe they can straight compare pmwiki to this or that
(there are tons) CMS is not good and doesn't help anybody.
So, also visually, while it might be fine to refresh the page look and
make a sort of lift to it, I would not strive to look similar to the
others at all costs.

That said, and on the other hand, for many needs pmwiki *does* compare
(and could compete) with some of the tools I mentioned above.
For this reason, a fresh look would be really fine (and bring new
people to the community).
And again: I really like Textpattern ;-)

Luigi

P.S. Also, I do not dislike the look (font, sizes, pics) of Contao

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Re: [pmwiki-users] it's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2011-09-12 Thread DaveG



On 9/12/2011 7:21 AM, Laatz, Erek wrote:

As PM wrote, the actual default skin is a good starting point for
personal customizations. But what about an image gallery with some
screenshots of the several skins offered in the skin section of the
pmwiki-site. The images could be linked to the skin section, where all
relevant informations are documentated.

Skins gallery: http://www.pmwiki.org/wiki/Cookbook/SkinsGallery


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[pmwiki-users] it's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2011-09-11 Thread Forgeot Eric
Hello,

why not proposing a new default pmwiki skin?

- for the default installation
- and for the http://www.pmwiki.org website?

The current one is not attractive at all (blue, underlined links), it looks 
like it was designed in 1992, and therefore, it give the impression PmWiki is 
backward technology, and not powerful at all.

Visit http://wordpress.org/ and http://www.pmwiki.org
Which one is giving more confidence and self confidence? 

I think a skin like this one could be great: 
http://www.pmwiki.org/wiki/Cookbook/AlalikeSkin

Or you could drive a contest for a default skin: it would give not only a 
better default skin, but also several new ones for the skin collection!

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Re: [pmwiki-users] it's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2011-09-11 Thread John Rankin
 why not proposing a new default pmwiki skin?

I support this proposal and agree with the reasons.

 I think a skin like this one could be great:
 http://www.pmwiki.org/wiki/Cookbook/AlalikeSkin

This is a good starting point, but does not work very well in Safari 5.

JR
-- 
John Rankin


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Re: [pmwiki-users] it's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2011-09-11 Thread jdd-gmane

Le 11/09/2011 22:14, John Rankin a écrit :

why not proposing a new default pmwiki skin?


why not triad?

jdd


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[pmwiki-users] it's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2011-09-11 Thread Forgeot Eric
 why not triad?

While slightly better, it's still using the old fashionned blue links, and the 
interface is quite complicated with all the options (for changing colors and 
such), 3 columns etc.
Somethink like http://www.pmwiki.org/wiki/PmWiki/Skins?skin=beeblebrox-gila2 a 
sober. I was more thinking to a refreshing and simple theme. 


If I may give another critic, the pmwiki.org website is also quite complicated, 
with so many links it looks quite confusing (for non geeks people): 21 links on 
the left menu, and the Recent Changes, Search, View    Edit    History    
Print    Backlinks (which is quite normal, but add to the confusion). 


In my opinion, it wouldn't hurt to show only half of those links, and giving 
other informations in subfolders.


    Home page: ok
    Wiki sandbox: ok
    All recent changes: ok
    (short) : is it really necessary?

PmWiki  pmwiki.org : this part could be simplified, for example with 3 or 4 
menus only:

- Get it, with Download, Installation, FAQ, release notes
- Learn it (or something like that, discover it etc), with Features, Basic 
editing, Doc index, philosophy
- improve it : cookbook, skins, pits (bug tracker)
- communicate with it (or interact with it) : contact us, mailing list, 
success stories, pmwiki users

    Send Pm money: ok
    Other languages: ok



I've posted an article about PmWiki on a linux (geek) website, and one user 
told while he thought pmwiki was a good product, he found the documentation 
confusing and the marketing could be improved:
https://linuxfr.org/news/sortie-de-pmwiki%C2%A02229#comment-1257952


I realize the work which was already done on the documentation is huge, but if 
the informations were more progressive, only disclosing new things when needed, 
instead of giving all of them at once (it's not easy to work on this, I 
suppose), it would help to make PmWiki more appealing.

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Re: [pmwiki-users] it's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2011-09-11 Thread Chris Cox

On 09/11/2011 02:35 PM, Forgeot Eric wrote:

Hello,

why not proposing a new default pmwiki skin?

- for the default installation
- and for the http://www.pmwiki.org website?

The current one is not attractive at all (blue, underlined links), it looks 
like it was designed in 1992, and therefore, it give the impression PmWiki is 
backward technology, and not powerful at all.

Visit http://wordpress.org/ and http://www.pmwiki.org
Which one is giving more confidence and self confidence?

I think a skin like this one could be great: 
http://www.pmwiki.org/wiki/Cookbook/AlalikeSkin

Or you could drive a contest for a default skin: it would give not only a 
better default skin, but also several new ones for the skin collection!



I agree that it might be time for another reorganization of how information is 
presented with the caveat that good reorganization would break linkages... 
so you can only go so far if that's important.


With regards to the skin... I like the simplicity of the skin... IMHO, what we 
need is BETTER documentation about skins.  I've created non-public skins that 
are absolutely amazing for PmWiki... skins which actually exploit PmWiki 
itself... something the current skin doesn't do too much of.  Of course, there 
are also features of PmWiki that did not exist at the time of the skin... so 
there is even more than could be done.


Perhaps what is needed is some fun... maybe a contest for skinning the site?

Just my opinion, but there still isn't a good skinning doc at PmWiki... and... 
(and I'll get dinged for this)... the contributed skins don't really do PmWiki 
justice either.  Just saying.  I think there are too many people that try to be 
raw HTML/javascript... and not enough that think PmWiki with regards to their 
skin designs.  Again, just saying.


As an example... the logo... it should be an included page.  In fact it could be 
a multi-fall back included page... so that it could change based on context 
even.  And the same could be done for page banners and the like.  All of this is 
DEFAULT PmWiki... skins should be SIMPLE... customizations should be elegant and 
leverage the power of PmWiki... again... just saying.


For me, if people could see the elegance of a skin design that truly leverages 
PmWiki instead of HTML (again, the current skin does some work to present a 
SearchBox... and in all fairness, that can be DONE using PmWiki markup...)... if 
people could see that elegance of design IMHO, it helps truly sell it... 
anyone can create a bunch of blinky lights and hard coded HTML and javascript... 
but NONE of that is really PmWiki.  Just saying...


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Re: [pmwiki-users] it's time to change pmwiki default skin!

2011-09-11 Thread Patrick R. Michaud
On Sun, Sep 11, 2011 at 08:35:59PM +0100, Forgeot Eric wrote:
 Hello,
 
 why not proposing a new default pmwiki skin?
 
 - for the default installation
 - and for the http://www.pmwiki.org website?
 
 The current one is not attractive at all (blue, underlined links), it 
 looks like it was designed in 1992, and therefore, it give the 
 impression PmWiki is backward technology, and not powerful at all.

Just a reminder that part of the reason behind the simplicity of
PmWiki's default skin is to make it easier for people (who may not
have a lot of HTML/CSS knowledge) to see how/where to customize it.

This isn't to say that I'm voting in favor of the current skin,
just that how it looks isn't the _only_ criterion.

I'd be fine with a high-quality and slightly complex skin if
we also have a good how to customize your own skin tutorial
to go along with it.

Pm

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