[Python-Dev] Language Summit notes

[R. David Murray]

On Wed, 16 Apr 2014 15:38:21 -0700, Benjamin Peterson <benjamin at python.org> wrote:
> On Wed, Apr 16, 2014, at 15:26, Antoine Pitrou wrote:
> > 
> > Hi Taavi,
> > 
> > Thanks for the report!
> > 
> > > Disussion about packaging continues. Glyph asks if the PSF could fund a
> > > usability study on installing Python. People generally seem to think
> > > it's a good idea.
> > 
> > What does this mean exactly? Under OS X and Linux, Python is typically
> > installed by default. And under Windows, it's a simple installer that
> > even non-Windows users like me have no problem executing. So what is
> > the problem this is trying to solve?
> 
> The installers might be hard to find on the website or hard to use.

Exactly.  As Glyph said, the usability study starts from giving the
user the task "install Python on your computer", or "get X working
on your computer" where X is something that is written in Python.
Running the installer is just one step in that process, and not one of
the difficult ones.

Let's give it a whirl:

Googling for 'python' got me python.org as the top hit.  So far so
good.

Clicking on python.org, I looked for a download link.  There wasn't a
button, but there was a header that says 'Download' with a nice download
icon next to it, just below the big blue area that comprises most of
the screen.  I couldn't click on 'download', though.  Nor on the little
download icon.  Then I saw the 'click here' text below it, so I clicked
on that.  That took me to an old-website-style page that was a wall of
text that starts out talking about python 3.0 being released in 2008.
(No, I didn't read the text before the link that explained where I was
going to be sent: I'm looking for a download link.)

Going back to the main page, I noticed that below the 'click here'
there was another link labeled "Python 3.4.0 - Python 2.7.6" (yes,
I know that's really two links, but no that isn't obvious, so someone
clicking on "it" is likely to get one or the other of them more or
less at random, although maybe they'll notice as the link changes
color when their cursor moves over it...).  So clicking on that, I
get another slightly less intimidating wall of text with a lot of "PEP
NNN" lines.  Scrolling down, after a section labeled 'More Resources',
there is a "Download" header...which is again not clickable.  Oh but look,
there's a 'download page' link in the middle of the paragraph after that
"Download" header.

Clicking on *that*, the first couple links on the page are 'Release Notes'
and 'Detailed Release Information'.  Below that we have a Files section.
It starts out with Mac OSX installer, then XZ compressed source tarball,
then gzipped source tarball, then, finally, a Windows installer...followed
by something about a debug information file, a help information file,
another debug information file, and another Windows installer file.
Oh, yeah, that's 64 bit vs 32 bit.  (Are normal windows users
comfortable about picking the right one of those? I assume they are.)

You will note that I missed the 'downloads' link in the menu bar in the
middle of the big blue section on the front page.  If we rewind, and I
hover there, I see a big "Python Source" with buttons for 3.4 and 2.7.
Guess what I'm going to do next if I'm a naive user?  Hmm.  "xxx.xz".
That doesn't look like an installer or executable, so cancel that.
Oh yeah, there's a 'windows' link on the left.  If I click that...I'm
back on that wall-of-peps page.

Googling 'install python' will get you to python.org as the top hit, with
some secondary links that take you to one of the links I found above,
or other less useful ones...but none of the top google links are to a
page that directly contains a link for downloading a windows installer,
not even the one labeled 'Windows'.

There is an 'Installing Python on Windows' link further down the google
results that links to a fairly good page from python-guide.org, whose
first link lets you download the 2.7.6 msi.  I guess that's the 32
bit version.  But it then tells you go to python.org to make sure you
get the latest release, and tells you to click on a link that doesn't
exist any more (the "windows installer" link).

So, yeah.

Usability.

--David

PS: the old website was worse in many ways, and was even more of a wall of
text, but at least once you see the "download now" link in that wall of
text it only takes one click to get to the windows installer (or zero,
if you happen to notice the 'windows installer link in the left hand
navigation bar), and the two windows installers are at the top of the
list on that download page.

PPS: I believe I've heard rumors that the download pages are a work
in progress, so I'm sure they will get *better*...but I think
the above indicates why a usability study isn't a bad idea :)