[Python-ideas] Coloured documentation

[spir]

Le Thu, 07 May 2009 13:32:08 +1200,
Greg Ewing <greg.ewing at canterbury.ac.nz> s'exprima ainsi:

> Leonardo Santagada wrote:
> 
> > No color formulas based on  
> > versions please (this would just end up in ugly colors and no one  
> > knowing how to decode the version from the color anyway).
> 
> Instead of just one colour, parts of the page
> could be coloured according to different parts of
> the version number, e.g. header from the major
> version and sidebar from the minor version, with
> maybe a stripe somewhere for the revision.
> 
> The digits could be encoded using the standard
> resistor colour code:
> 
>     0 - black
>     1 - brown
>     2 - red
>     3 - orange
>     4 - yellow
>     5 - green
>     6 - blue
>     7 - purple
>     8 - grey
>     9 - white
> 
> Then there would be no problem recovering the
> version number from the colour scheme.
> 

I like the idea. We could hardly find a simpler encoding colour scheme for the version.
Also, the resistor colour sequence include the common rainbow sequence (2..7).

About layout, I don't think we need big colour bars or such invasive things. A little symbol at the lower left or right corner could do the job:

##### major
@
@
minor

If you know what the symbol means, you don't need it big. If you don't, having it big does not help. It's easier to add it to the current layout, too.

The issue is that python's doc holds many very long pages split into sections and sub-sections, etc.. so that it's common to land somewhere inside in a page (either from a toc or external link). The colour mark should then be static if we want it be really useful, but it's a much more difficult thing and does not fit at all with the present layout (no static top or side bar).

Another possibility is to use the version color as title backgroud in place of the present gray. I wouldn't find this agressive, as long as the colors are rather pastel than bright, because the same colour would be used on the whole page. But surely there would be much resistance to this idea.


Denis
------
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