[sword-devel] Site nav changes?

[Greg Hellings]

On Tue, Mar 18, 2014 at 9:15 AM, DM Smith <dmsmith at crosswire.org> wrote:

> I seem to remember the discussion was that the visitor to crosswire.orgis one of three types: user, module developer or code developer. The user
> was served by the change that was made. The module dev and the code dev
> were to find what they need in the wiki.
>
> Regarding the tar balls, is that really the appropriate distribution of
> source these days? Do we want to encourage people getting an aging tarball,
> perhaps ancient?
>

I'm not really aware of any other method of source distribution currently
in circulation unless you count the SRPM that is typically distributed as
fulfillment of the GPL and similar clauses. I believe it is still the
preferred distribution method (one could argue that .tar.gz is the
granddaddy and .tar.bz2 and .tar.xz are now gaining in popularity, but
.tar.gz is still the only source distributing method I find commonly. Only
rarely do I see .zip bundles).


>
> On the wiki we have:
> http://www.crosswire.org/wiki/Tutorial:Compiling_%26_Installing_SWORD
> I think that it is sufficient for someone who actually wants to get to the
> code. Does it need to be a big, shiny DOWNLOAD button?
>

I don't see anywhere on that page a link to download the tarball releases
either. It only speaks of pulling from Subversion.


>
> Perhaps there needs to be a link for the ftp folder containing the
> tarballs?
>

At the least on the tutorial page, and I also think there should be one
from the root of the /sword/ portion of the site. A quick look at other
major open source project sites and I see a prominent link for "Download"
or "Get ..." on the landing page of every project. http://pidgin.im (this
one changes based on your UserAgent string to be an appropriate binary
download on Windows and OS X, I forget what it links to on Linux),
http://www.firefox.com (again, a single binary app download link),
http://python.org has a large menu item "Downloads" with links to both
binary and source-code distributions, http://xiphos.org/ has a large
Download Now link on the right hand side, http://www.gnome.org has a link
right on the front page "Get Gnome 3" that takes you to directions for
getting it in your distro or downloading the source code. It seems to me
this is the general rule of thumb for open source project landing pages. To
be fair, CrossWire is probably more like Apache than any of these others,
which are all single-project sites (with the exception of firefox.com which
redirects you to the firefox landing page on mozilla.com). But what does
the main page for the Apache Http Server project look like on Apache's
site? http://projects.apache.org/projects/http_server.html A link directly
to the download and SVN pages on the particular project's main page, etc.
Sword? Currently I have to manually enter a URL to
www.crosswire.org/sword/software/ in order to find the link to download our
source distribution and navigate deep into the wiki to find information on
building it out of svn for myself?

I always thought driving people through the "Software" link was a little
unintuitive, but at least it was discoverable. I don't see how this new
path is even possibly discoverable, let alone a good idea. Yes, driving
people to the client applications is a good idea, since that is what the
majority of people will actually have in mind. But hiding the path to even
get the engine?

--Greg

>
> In Him,
> DM
>
>
> On Mar 18, 2014, at 9:58 AM, Greg Hellings <greg.hellings at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> But how do I get to the page I linked - the /sword/software/ landing page,
> which is distinct from the /sword/software/biblecs/ page that you're
> talking about? The last time I visited the site (I forget when) the
> Software link on the Sword section led to the /sword/software/ landing page
> from whence I could download the Sword engine itself. At the moment, I
> cannot find any discoverable links to this page on the site and just
> received a complaint in IRC from a visitor who could not figure out how to
> download the Sword API tarballs.
>
> --Greg
>
>
> On Tue, Mar 18, 2014 at 8:47 AM, DM Smith <dmsmith at crosswire.org> wrote:
>
>> I think it was a long time ago. Software in the banner consistently leads
>> to www.crosswire.org/applications.
>>
>> When you get to the applications page, scroll to the software you want
>> and click on it's link. When I scroll to The SWORD Project for Windows and
>> click on its link it goes to the download page.
>>
>> In Him,
>> DM
>>
>> On Mar 18, 2014, at 9:40 AM, Greg Hellings <greg.hellings at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>> Have the nav links at the top of the site changed, recently? If memory
>> serves, I used to navigate to www.crosswire.org/sword and click
>> 'Software' at the top of the page and be taken to a page where I could find
>> the download for the engine, yes? Now that leads me to
>> www.crosswire.org/applications/ and I am unable to find the download URL
>> for the engine's tarball. Is my memory just slipping, or has this changed
>> recently? I can't seem to find a way to actually navigate to the URL
>> http://www.crosswire.org/sword/software/ which probably should have a
>> direct link with a big, shiny "DOWNLOAD" off our main Sword page.
>>
>> --Greg
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