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Re: [Axiom-developer] Front page esthetic
From: |
Gabriel Dos Reis |
Subject: |
Re: [Axiom-developer] Front page esthetic |
Date: |
01 Aug 2006 06:40:11 +0200 |
"Bill Page" <address@hidden> writes:
| Gaby,
|
| I am glad to receive your comments about the Axiom Wike site.
| Please forgive me if some of my replies sound overly defensive.
| I admit I have a biased view - but that is what makes it even
| more important that other people comment about this stuff...
|
| On July 31, 2006 9:33 PM you wrote:
| >
| > I find the front page of Axiom quite "visually heavy" -- and
| > many times I miss there the information I'm looking for.
| >
|
| Could you give an example of information that you were looking
| for but did not find? That sort of observation would be a big
| help.
For example, I was looking for research papers related to Axiom. I
knew they were buried deeply somewhere in the hierarchical pages.
see the message I sent to axiom-mail.
| > So, I took a look at few free software or open source
| > computer algebra systems, to see what other people are up to.
| >
| > http://maxima.sourceforge.net/
| > http://yacas.sourceforge.net/
| > http://www.singular.uni-kl.de/
| > http://turnbull.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/~gap/
| >
| > All of them appears to me to be quite simple -- and I like that
| > simplicity. Especially that of Maxima. It takes very little
| > time to display -- compared to Axiom's.
| >
|
| When I look at
|
| http://maxima.sourceforge.net
|
| My first reaction is: Hmmm, that doesn't look so different than the
| Axiom Wiki FrontPage... The time to display seems quite similar over
| a high speed connection and a reasonably fast system (AMD 3500+).
|
| Differences I noticed:
|
| 1) Maxima uses just a left side-bar but Axiom Wiki currently uses
| both left and right side-bars, but just a left side-bar
| navigation bar on all other pages.
|
| 2) The Axiom Wiki FrontPage has more graphics including an example
| Axiom output graphic.
That, from my perspective, contributes to the "visual load".
| 3) The Maxima web site is not a wiki.
I understand that. I'm not sure I see the benefits of having the
frontpage being a wiki -- but that is a minor point I guess.
| 4) The Maxima web site has no search function.
that is a minus for them, and a plus for us :-)
| I don't find anything that makes the Maxima page seem simpler or
| that gives me the impression that information is more readily
| accessible. What am I missing?
|
| When I looked at:
|
| http://yacas.sourceforge.net
|
| I thought:
|
| 1) Yacas FrontPage doesn't say much and has only a minimal set
| of links (no side-bars).
minimal is beautiful :-)
As I said, my preference goes to maxima's style. Yacas' is at one end
of the spectrum. I find that Axiom's holds the other end.
| 2) Yacas uses a fixed left side-bar on other pages.
|
| 3) Not a wiki.
|
| 4) No search.
|
| When I look at:
|
| http://www.singular.uni-kl.de/
|
| my reaction is:
|
| 1) Looks a lot like Axiom Wiki.
but much simpler; visually. It has direct links to what I would call
the essential stuff.
| 2) Has search.
|
| 3) Has both left and right side-bars.
|
| 4) Not a wiki.
Why is having the front-page as wiki a plus?
For all I know, only a handful of people can actually modify that page.
For other pages, due to irritating spams, the system has made it
complicated for good citizens to contribute changes. I don't see a
difference between that and maintaining the website files as part of
the SVN or CVS repository. The latter seems simpler to me -- but I'm
not proposing it. Just observing.
[...]
| > Important to me is that the front-page must send the message that
| > this is related to research. Yes, we have links to workshops and
| > all that. But, most importantly, links to research papers related
| > to Axiom must be clearly and unambiguously linked from there --
|
| Are you aware of the Axiom bibliography on the Axiom Portal?
|
| http://portal.axiom-developer.org/refs
Yes, I do.
| Maybe this deserves a link on the Axiom Wiki FrontPage?
This is precisely what I suggested in the message I sent (yesterday I
believe) to axiom-mail.
| > I sent a message to axiom-mail to that effect but for some reasons
| > it never shows up :-(
|
| I did not see any posting to axiom-mail. In fact I haven't seen
| any real postings to axiom-mail for some time - only spam (about
| 10 to 20 spam message per day). I wonder if this list is working
| properly? Most people seem to prefer the axiom-devel list. Maybe
| we have too many lists?
I don't think we have too many lists; we're just misusing axiom-devel
:-)
| > My suggestion would be to simplify the "visual load" of the
| > front-page. I know that sounds a bit unhelpful but it is a
| > start of suggestion :-)
|
| I am not clear on what you mean by "visual load". Are you
| referring to the layout? The color scheme?
yes, layout. I think the color is OK.
| > People should be able to find the exciting/appealing things
| > about Axiom from its front-page. We should not require them
| > to "dig through".
| >
|
| I agree.
|
| Can you give an example of something that is exciting and/or
| appealing about Axiom that is not found on the FrontPage?
|
| What constituents "dig through" to you?
For example, I know that if I log into the portal I can find the links
to the articles; but I don't know how many clicks it takes to find it
from the frontpage.
Yesterday, I was looking for something in the documentation of the
silver branch and realized there was a page for "development" (or
something like that) that is a hierarchical parent of the silver
stuff.
I don't propose to put all links ono the frontpage though :-)
| Do you mean just
| that they don't find the information on the FrontPage?
| How many clicks to finding the right information do you
| think is reasonable?
at most two.
| > To my mind the description of Axiom should mention
| > application to engineering, computer science -- not just
| > Physics or Mathematics.
| >
|
| I agree. I really would like to be able to list examples
| of all of these. Did you see any mention of physics on the
| FrontPage?
I saw it somewhere (that is from yesterday memory)... It turns out
that I read it from Axiom's SF page. Sorry for that.
Actually, I'm interested in a publically accessible list of
applications of computer algebra in fields other than maths. Do you
happen to know one?
| I would claim that computer science is clearly
| implied by the contents of the FrontPage even if not
| explicitly named.
we should be explicit about it -- it is part of "they should not dig
through." :-)
-- Gaby
- Re: [Axiom-developer] Front page esthetic,
Gabriel Dos Reis <=
- Re: [Axiom-developer] Front page esthetic, Ralf Hemmecke, 2006/08/01
- RE: [Axiom-developer] Front page esthetic, Page, Bill, 2006/08/01
- RE: [Axiom-developer] Front page esthetic, Page, Bill, 2006/08/03
- Re: [Axiom-developer] Front page esthetic, Gabriel Dos Reis, 2006/08/03
- Re: [Axiom-developer] Front page esthetic, Martin Rubey, 2006/08/04
- Re: [Axiom-developer] Front page esthetic, Antoine Hersen, 2006/08/04
- Re: [Axiom-developer] Front page esthetic, Martin Rubey, 2006/08/04