Re: Add note to manuals.html describing formats of manuals (Issue 2895) (issue 6867054)

[Phil Holmes]

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Sent: Friday, December 07, 2012 10:38 PM
Subject: Re: Add note to manuals.html describing formats of manuals (Issue 
2895) (issue 6867054)


> I have a few problems with this.  The general design of lilypond.org
> puts all text (or almost all) inside divs, which in turn are displayed
> inside boxes.  A more serious concern is that this text is fairly wordy
> and pushes the real material (i.e. the links to manuals) lower on the
> page.
> If somebody has a 23" monitor and uses full-screen windows, this isn't
> any problem.  But on a small display, such as my netbook, or just
> somebody who likes to have small windows open on their screen, this
> makes the page less useful.
> For reference, on my netbook right now with a maximized chrome window, I
> can only see down to Usage and Web.
>
> There is something to be said for trading off between usability for new
> users vs. existing users, but I think the proposed text goes too far
> towards new users.
>
> https://codereview.appspot.com/6867054/

I accept that this isn't the same as current style, but it seemed the 
simplest way to fix what is currently a significant usability problem with 
our "stable" manuals.  If you want to get a PDF of Notation for 2.16.1, 
essentially there's no way to find it unless you're a good guesser or use 
Google.  You have to guess that "Details of" points to a PDF, and the 
mailing lists have provided a number of examples of where new users have 
failed to make this connection.

It seems to me we have 2 options, which could either meet you need to avoid 
pushing the text further down the page.  1.  Replace (say) Notation: syntax 
reference.(details of Notation) with Notation (HTML pages); syntax 
reference.(details of Notation); PDF download; single large HTML page and 
have the 3 links there.  I think this would still fit OK (not tried, but the 
space looks to be there) or 2: Add a box towards the bottom of the page with 
"Manual formats" as a header, and essentially the text of this patch in it. 
New users could use those little scroll bars on the right of the screen to 
find that text, and you wouldn't need to bother.

Which do you prefer?

--
Phil Holmes