[Pydotorg-redesign] HTML version of design

[Steve Holden]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: pydotorg-redesign-bounces at python.org
> [mailto:pydotorg-redesign-bounces at python.org]On Behalf Of
> Walter Dörwald
> Sent: Monday, July 21, 2003 12:31 PM
> To: Aahz
> Cc: pydotorg-redesign at python.org
> Subject: Re: [Pydotorg-redesign] HTML version of design
>
>
> Aahz wrote:
>
> > On Sat, Jul 19, 2003, Walter Dörwald wrote:
> >
> >>Walter wrote:
> >>
> >>>Aahz wrote:
> >>>
> >>>>Also, what I think I'd prefer to an "expanding" design is a
> >>>>"collapsing" design that gives a good context-sensitive
> menu.  We've
> >>>>currently got a half-assed look like that; I'd like it
> cleaned up and
> >>>>generalized.
> >>>
> >>>OK, then I'll try to extract the global site structure from all the
> >>>links.h files and try to generate a navigation from that.
> >>
> >>The HTML version with automatically generated navigation is
> finished:
> >>http://styx.livinglogic.de/~walter/www.python.org-converted/
> >
> >
> > Hmmm...  That wasn't what I meant.  In the current design, *all* the
> > top-level structure except the top-level links vanishes
> when you drill
> > down, but I don't think keeping all those links is any better.
>
> Unfortunately *all* links on the frontpage are in the other-links
> section in index.ht. If we add those to the navigation, we get what
> I've generated. If the links for other-links are only one the page
> itself, we get what we have now.
>
For what it's worth, I still don't think that the left-hand nav menu
should change for different pages on the site, but rather that there
should be a second-level menu, which varies according to which
second-level directory you view. Note that the concept of levels in the
web information need not (but can) be mapped on to the virtual directory
structure used to implement the web. As long as the make system knows
whether it's making a first-level or a second-level page, things should
work.

It will probably be less complex in the long run to map the site
structure with a corresponding directory structure, but then we might
need to consider all the links we'd break...

> > What I'd
> > like to see when you click on, say, the PSF link would be
> something like
> >
> > Special topics
> > Popular links
> >     PSF Home
> >         About the PSF
> >         Mission statement
> >         Donations
> >         Membership roster
> >         Public records
> >         Bylaws
> >         Press releases
> > See also
> > Exits
>
> Exactly, so we should move those links that should always be visible
> into a links.ht on the top level. That would at least give us a
> resonable definition of the site structure, although ht2html can't
> cope with it.
>
I'd rather see

Special topics
Popular links
PSF Home (possibly highlighted)
See also
Exits

With a second-level menu showing

About the PSF
Mission statement
  .
  .
  .
Bylaws
Press Releases

> > That's not something we can do easily right now, since it
> requires some
> > of that major restructure I'm trying to avoid, but I'd like that
> > capability built in, and I think we can probably do at
> least some of it
> > without the full restructure.
> >
Indeed, the major problem seems to be: what's practical with a minimum
of restructuring.

That doesn't mean we can't be talking about what happens after that, of
course, but we need to stay a little focused to get anything at all
done.

regards
--
Steve Holden                                 http://www.holdenweb.com/
Python Web Programming                http://pydish.holdenweb.com/pwp/