On 9/3/10 10:43 AM, Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:
> On 9/2/10 21:58 CDT, Boris Wang wrote:
>> I think AA just laid emphasis on the proprietor of d language
>
> I didn't participate to the creation of the content or layout.
>
> Andrei

Yup, I'm the guy responsible for the new design (like it or hate it), and I tried to avoid changing any content.

I kept the DM logo because the original site has it.  I'm fine with trying designs that emphasize D and de-emphasize Digital Mars, but I would want Walter's go-ahead first.

How is the website programmed?  If done properly the page content is independent of the style.  Use page templates and CSS stylesheets so that you have a single point of change for the entire website.  Stay away from static HTML files.  Use PHP, JSP, Freemarker or something similar.

Using stylesheets can allow your users to view the site however is most
pleasing to them.  For example.  Go to this page:
    http://www.thesitewizard.com/css/switch-alternate-css-styles.shtml
 and then in FireFox select: View-> Page Style and switch between the two
provided styles.  Neato!

If you want my opinion on the visual style I'd say it's a huge improvement over the digital mars site.  The flare gives it a sophisticated feel. However, please don't let trivial matters like the "look" of the site slow us down from getting accurate and useful information out to the world.  If you have a single point of change the look can be tweaked as time goes on.

In terms of layout I agree with filgood that a site like
http://fantom.org/is a better model.  It has the most important links
in BIG colorful text on
the home page:
  1) What is D?
  2) What does it look like?
  3) How do I download it?

With a site like fantom.org you can tell that somebody sat down and though out: What's really important to my users?  What are the primary use-cases of my visitors?

My 2cents.  I'd be glad to help if you need it.
- Adam

On 9/3/10 1:31 PM, Adam B wrote:
> How is the website programmed?  If done properly the page content is
> independent of the style.  Use page templates and CSS stylesheets so
> that you have a single point of change for the entire website.  Stay
> away from static HTML files.  Use PHP, JSP, Freemarker or something similar.

Sorry, I think it's going to stay static HTML: the website is generated using DDoc macros and I believe Walter is unlikely to want to go in any other direction.

> Using stylesheets can allow your users to view the site however is most
> pleasing to them.  For example.  Go to this page:
> http://www.thesitewizard.com/css/switch-alternate-css-styles.shtml
>   and then in FireFox select: View-> Page Style and switch between the
> two provided styles.  Neato!
>
> If you want my opinion on the visual style I'd say it's a huge
> improvement over the digital mars site.  The flare gives it a
> sophisticated feel.  However, please don't let trivial matters like the
> "look" of the site slow us down from getting accurate and useful
> information out to the world.  If you have a single point of change the
> look can be tweaked as time goes on.

I haven't been changing the content--indeed I have purposely stayed away from doing so.  I believe that the desired direction is to get a good look and feel working independently of the content, and the content can be modified independently of my changes.  I do have some thoughts on what kind of content changes I'd like to see, though.

> In terms of layout I agree with filgood that a site like
> http://fantom.org/ is a better model.  It has the most important links
> in BIG colorful text on the home page:
>    1) What is D?
>    2) What does it look like?
>    3) How do I download it?
>
> With a site like fantom.org <http://fantom.org> you can tell that
> somebody sat down and though out: What's really important to my users?
> What are the primary use-cases of my visitors?
>
> My 2cents.  I'd be glad to help if you need it.
> - Adam

If you or anyone else is interested in hacking at my look and feel please let me know and I can send you a .zip of the DDoc source code with my changes.  If you want to hack at the original DDoc files without my changes they're in the Phobos repository at http://www.dsource.org/projects/phobos/browser/trunk/docsrc

Am 02.09.2010 15:34, schrieb Alexander Malakhov:

> 7. "Documentation"->"Library Reference" link is broken

It would be nice to include the print.css stylesheet into the phobos docs (for D1 and D2 on digitalmars.com as well) to get rid of the menu margins.

David Gileadi wrote:
> Sorry, I think it's going to stay static HTML: the website is generated using DDoc macros and I believe Walter is unlikely to want to go in any other direction.

Yes, because static HTML makes the pages load fast. There are a lot of web sites out there with dynamic content that are just pig slow, it really detracts from exploring the site. Slashdot and Digg are prime failures in this regard.


> I haven't been changing the content--indeed I have purposely stayed away from doing so.  I believe that the desired direction is to get a good look and feel working independently of the content, and the content can be modified independently of my changes.

Right!

On Thu, 02 Sep 2010 03:03:33 -0400, Andrei Alexandrescu <SeeWebsiteForEmail@erdani.org> wrote:

> Time to zero in on the overall design and start working on the content. Please give the design one more round of comments.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Andrei

Hi Andrei,
The site is still extremely buggy (i.e. unusable) on Opera. Same problems as before.

Am 2010-09-02 14:46, schrieb retard:
> Thu, 02 Sep 2010 13:31:03 +0100, Gareth Charnock wrote:
>
>> PS: Google Chrome on a 1680x1050 resolution display.
>>> I'm afraid I really like the red flare; it makes the website look more
>>> visually appealing. A solid background colour would just look blander.
>>>
>>> However, I agree with the comments about the c1.gif and d3.gif images.
>>> They don't really fit with the more professional looking new design.
>
> We need a more professional looking SVG version of the D man then!

How about a new logo for D in general? Are there any plans to make a contest or something similar to create a new D logo which has a modern looking design?

I also think that making the site valid is a very important thing, so are there any plans to do so? If nobody wants it to do I could help.

The main page has a quote from Michael.  Who the hell is Michael? The Michael? The archangel?

On Fri, Dec 31, 2010 at 3:45 AM, Thomas Mader <thomas.mader@gmail.com>wrote:

> Am 2010-09-02 14:46, schrieb retard:
>
>> Thu, 02 Sep 2010 13:31:03 +0100, Gareth Charnock wrote:
>>
>>  PS: Google Chrome on a 1680x1050 resolution display.
>>>
>>>> I'm afraid I really like the red flare; it makes the website look more visually appealing. A solid background colour would just look blander.
>>>>
>>>> However, I agree with the comments about the c1.gif and d3.gif images. They don't really fit with the more professional looking new design.
>>>>
>>>
>> We need a more professional looking SVG version of the D man then!
>>
>
> How about a new logo for D in general? Are there any plans to make a contest or something similar to create a new D logo which has a modern looking design?
>
> I also think that making the site valid is a very important thing, so are there any plans to do so? If nobody wants it to do I could help.
>

On 2010-12-31 10:45, Thomas Mader wrote:

[...]

> How about a new logo for D in general? Are there any plans to make a
> contest or something similar to create a new D logo which has a modern
> looking design?

vote ++

>
> I also think that making the site valid is a very important thing, so
> are there any plans to do so? If nobody wants it to do I could help.

I think a better marketing of the D community would not only attract more developers but also web-designer, maintainer, packager, content-writer, ...


BTW:
> Am 2010-09-02 14:46, schrieb retard:
>> We need a more professional looking SVG version of the D man then!

... there is already a SVG logo for the D-man since 5 years, but obviousily it get not adopted :/
http://w148.de/~mmartin/d/logo.html

Am 2010-12-31 11:35, schrieb Matthias Pleh:
> On 2010-12-31 10:45, Thomas Mader wrote:
>> I also think that making the site valid is a very important thing, so
>> are there any plans to do so? If nobody wants it to do I could help.
>
> I think a better marketing of the D community would not only attract
> more developers but also web-designer, maintainer, packager,
> content-writer, ...
>

With valid i mean html/css validation.