[Webteam] Re: Some ideas to make it even shorter, what do you think? (Re: Frontpage - again)

[Brad Fuller]

I thought Michael's attempt was a good starting point. In general, I 
think this is too long.

However, I like that you removed the links on the left in the Next 
Steps. I think the lines need to have a bit more space to them to 
separate the steps. As it is, I keep thinking "Learn" is part of 
"Explore". I wish that we could have a one word for "Stay current." All 
I can think of is "News"
I'd remove "Welcome to the world of Squeak". Should be at the very top 
of the page.

see below for comments.

Michael van der Gulik wrote:

>>----------------
>>Welcome!
>>
>>Squeak is a modern, open source, highly portable, fast and full-featured
>>implementation of the powerful Smalltalk programming language and
>>environment. In other words, it's pretty nice! :)
>>    
>>
>Bagh! Smileys! Shoot them! Also, "In other words, it's pretty nice" is a
>bit too informal for my liking.
>  
>
It's too flowery, as well.

>>Smalltalk is the original object oriented language which still sets the
>>bar for object oriented dynamically typed interactive languages and
>>environments. You may be familiar with other open source languages like
>>Ruby or Python, but Squeak takes these concepts much, much further
>>offering a true uniform fully reflective environment - real live
>>objects.
>>
>Features.
>  
>
agreed, move to Features.

>  
>
>>   "The real romance is out ahead and yet to come. The computer
>>revolution hasn't started yet. Don't be misled by the enormous flow of
>>money into bad defacto standards for unsophisticated buyers using poor
>>adaptations of incomplete ideas."
>>
>>   - Alan Kay
>>
>One quote is good. Two is making the site a poetry compendium.
>  
>
I like quotes. But, they don't really belong anywhere in the main pages.
However, we could adopt a short quote and place it in the top header in 
a color that is just a bit lighter than the blue header (just so it's 
barely seen). Not obtrusive. This quote could be the official 
chosen/adopted quote to represent Squeak.

Although, overused, I like "The best way to predict the future is to 
invent it.""

>>The diverse and very active community around Squeak includes teachers,
>>students, business application developers, researchers, music
>>performers, interactive media artists, web developers and many others.
>>We use Squeak for a wide variety of computing tasks, ranging from child
>>education to innovative research in computer science or creation of
>>advanced dynamic web sites using the highly acclaimed continuation based
>>Seaside framework.
>>
>All that, and only two sentences! If somebody has come to the Squeak
>site, they probably already know that or don't want to know that.
>"Features", or maybe "Community".
>  
>
agreed. 

>>The Squeak kernel sports:
>>
>>   * A largely Smalltalk-80 and ANSI Smalltalk X3J20 compatible
>>language and system libraries
>>   * A virtual machine written in Squeak itself, making it easy to
>>debug, analyze, and change ensuring the same behavior on the different
>>supported platforms
>>   * A bit identical compact 32-bit direct pointer object memory with
>>very little overhead per object
>>   * A simple yet efficient incremental hybrid generation scavenging
>>mark and sweep garbage collector supporting efficient bulk-mutation of
>>objects
>>   * A plugin system for the virtual machine with optional plugins for
>>most parts outside the core like networking, file I/O, sound and
>>graphics
>>   * Bit-identical execution including graphics on all major computing
>>platforms including all major versions of Windows, MacOS and Unix/Linux,
>>OS/2 Warp and RiscOS. And if your platform wasn't included in that list,
>>Squeak is easy to port. :)
>> 
>>
>>On top of this Squeak has class libraries and virtual machine plugins
>>for very advanced multimedia including anti-aliased 2D and accelerated
>>3D graphics, real-time sound and music synthesis, MPEG2 video and much
>>more. In addition, it has one of the most advanced fully reflective
>>development environments ever created with over 500 addon packages
>>available for single click download and installation.
>>
>This won't make any sence to those teachers, students, ... and also
>belongs in the "Features" section.
>  
>
agreed

>  
>
>>The entire Squeak system is open source software, distributed freely
>>with a liberal license.
>>
>But this can definitely stay :-).
>
>  
>
>>Also, I proposed earlier that we put the "Main Squeak Portals" in a
>>"boxlet" on the right below the download boxlet - that would also make
>>the page shorter.
>>
>Good idea.
>  
>
agreed.

>>PS. The Project page would be nice to publish - then I can link to it in
>>the "Main Squeak Portals" section like I wanted to. 
>>
>Now that the community is using Teams, I think that the site really does
>need a well-maintained "teams" or "projects" section with the project
>name, description, web site link etc.
>  
>
Yes, and an explanation of the teams , and updated news from the team 
leaders. The updated news can be rotated in and out to the front page to 
show activity.

>My justification for keeping it brief is that, if people are really
>wanting to invest time to read all that stuff, they have time to click
>on the links. I don't. When I go to a new open-source project, I usually
>look for "What is this..." and then "Screenshots" and then "Downloads".
>I don't usually read reams of text, and when I do, I've specifically
>searched for it.
>  
>
Agreed. Also, when you put up a lot of text, people's eyes start to 
gloss over and you start to lose them. We don't want that.

>Most big-company websites are a page with loads of links. Most
>Open-Source projects have a page with "News" on it, which is a good
>measure of the activity in that project.
>  
>
YES! News is needed and shows that the project is active. It allows 
helps keep people coming back to the site to see what's new. This is a 
good thing.
In fact, I would suggest that "News" (or whatever it will be called) is 
at the top above all the introduction. Remember that most people who 
come to the site will not be new to Squeak. Those that are new will see 
the activity in the "News" section showing activity. This makes Squeak 
attractive. Below the "News" section they will see the intro and the 
rest. The "News" is actually a good introduction to what is Squeak. I 
like it when news is on top. It doesn't have to be big. Just a link with 
a few words of introduction of what is going on with the topic.
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