[Pydotorg-redesign] Download pages

[Skip Montanaro]

(Did you send this to pydotorg-redesign as well?  It appears not.  We need
more inputs, now fewer, at this point. ;-)

    Johannes> On Sun, Aug 10, 2003 at 09:26:50PM -0500, Skip Montanaro wrote:
    >> * Sean Reifschneider's got a helluva lot of different RPMs.  I only
    >> included about half of the 2.2.3 RPMs in the example table.  His
    >> "three versions to rule them all" suggests that maybe the table needs
    >> another level of hierarchy.

    Johannes> See my mockup (attached): further options on a different page.

    >> * I included an empty Notes column.  This should probably be numbered
    >> links to a set of footnotes below the table (or on another page).  I
    >> think there will probably be too many notes to embed their text
    >> directly in the table.

    Johannes> What kind of notes are you thinking of? I think notes
    Johannes> pertaining to a specific releases should be on that releases
    Johannes> page. I'd also like to have notes for a specific platform on a
    Johannes> different page.

I was thinking of a note explaining why UNWISE.EXE was necessary, or one to
distinguish the three categories of Sean's RPMs.

The problem I see with your suggested layout is that you ask the user to
select the version twice.  For example, all your Windows links point to
windows.htm.  Presumably they've already told you which version they want by
clicking on a specific Windows link.

    Johannes> I see the /download/ page as an *entry point* where a user
    Johannes> should be able to download the most popular packages right
    Johannes> away. When a user has different needs, he/she can go to one of
    Johannes> the more specific pages.

I see three possible organizations:

    * A single download page containing just about everything people would
      need, with an occasional jump to another page or to some text farther
      down on the download page.  This is what I'm proposing.

    * A platform-centered download page - first click takes you to Windows
      or Linux or Source or whatever page, from which you select the version
      you're interested in.  This has the disadvantage that version info is
      scattered around and maybe duplicated.

    * A version-centered download page - first click the version you're
      interested in and then select the platform.  This is similar to the
      current setup.  Aside from not being able to easily identify the
      precise file(s) you want to download, it scatters (and maybe
      duplicates) the platform information across several pages.

Most FTP setups are more-or-less like the third option: they tend to be
organized hierarchically by version, but there is no immediate platform
information available when you are staring at the various files.  You have
to dive into a README file if the authors provided one.

Skip