[Pharo-project] Download choices :) or :(?
Pretend you are a newbie and want to try Pharo. You get on the http://www.pharo-project.org page 1. Top right image says "Download Pharo" That downloads immediately from https://gforge.inria.fr/frs/download.php/28437/Pharo-1.2.1-OneClick.zip 2. But in the left column You can click on the heading "Download" Now you go to http://www.pharo-project.org/pharo-download which gives you two different one-click choices, but without any explanation of the difference between Cog VM and standard VM. 2A. And if you look down further on that page, there are lots of 'custom' choices, one of which is a Windows Installer, apparently of the most recent version, but that one says it uses the unexplained 'Cog' vm. 3. Wait!! On the home page, you can assume that the latest release is 1.2.1 in the left column, and this takes you to http://www.pharo-project.org/pharo-download/release-1-2-1 which now give you 3 choices to download, one of which is a one-click, but is it Cog or is it Standard? 4. Wait again!! On the home page, under Shortcuts on 'Stable Pharo' which immediately starts to download yet another version: currently Pharo-1.2.1-11.04.03.zip 5. And now you feel obligated to click the words 'Download Pharo' on the right column of the home page, thinking there may be even more versions to pick from. It takes you to another page. Deja Vu, it looks familiar.... So, newbie, was that clear enough for you? -- View this message in context: http://forum.world.st/Download-choices-or-tp3440405p3440405.html Sent from the Pharo Smalltalk mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
Nice to point it out, thanks. Usability issues of the web page are surely to arise more often, since Pharo is gaining more adepts every day. Maybe a solution would be appreciated as well. Fernando On Sun, Apr 10, 2011 at 10:24 PM, DougEdmunds <dougedmunds@gmail.com> wrote:
Pretend you are a newbie and want to try Pharo. You get on the http://www.pharo-project.org page
1. Top right image says "Download Pharo" That downloads immediately from https://gforge.inria.fr/frs/download.php/28437/Pharo-1.2.1-OneClick.zip
2. But in the left column You can click on the heading "Download" Now you go to  http://www.pharo-project.org/pharo-download which gives you two different one-click choices, but without any explanation of the difference between Cog VM and standard VM.
2A. And if you look down further on that page, there are lots of 'custom' choices, one of which is a Windows Installer, apparently of the most recent version, but that one says it uses the unexplained 'Cog' vm.
3. Wait!! On the home page, you can assume that the latest release is 1.2.1 in the left column, and this takes you to http://www.pharo-project.org/pharo-download/release-1-2-1 which now give you 3 choices to download, one of which is a one-click, but is it Cog or is it Standard?
4. Wait again!! Â On the home page, under Shortcuts on 'Stable Pharo' which immediately starts to download yet another version: currently Pharo-1.2.1-11.04.03.zip
5. And now you feel obligated to click the words 'Download Pharo' on the right column of the home page, thinking there may be even more versions to pick from. Â It takes you to another page. Deja Vu, Â it looks familiar....
So, newbie, was that clear enough for you?
-- View this message in context: http://forum.world.st/Download-choices-or-tp3440405p3440405.html Sent from the Pharo Smalltalk mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
There should be i guess just one download page. On the first page, there is some downloads links in the three columns. If you look at the python language website, there is only one download page, the same for Ruby. Adrian take care of the website if i remember. I know from experience this a really boring task. If we want to scale to a small team of volunteers, what could be done to simplify the modification of pages ? I know that the website currently used is based on Cmsbox and this is great showcase for Pharo&Smalltalk, but maybe an automatically generated html website with the help of tools like webgen or something similar with the pages on a git repository somewhere could help the management. Regards, On Mon, Apr 11, 2011 at 3:40 AM, Fernando Olivero <fernando.olivero@usi.ch> wrote:
Nice to point it out, thanks.
Usability issues of the web page are surely to arise more often, since Pharo is gaining more adepts every day.
Maybe a solution would be appreciated as well.
Fernando
On Sun, Apr 10, 2011 at 10:24 PM, DougEdmunds <dougedmunds@gmail.com> wrote:
Pretend you are a newbie and want to try Pharo. You get on the http://www.pharo-project.org page
1. Top right image says "Download Pharo" That downloads immediately from https://gforge.inria.fr/frs/download.php/28437/Pharo-1.2.1-OneClick.zip
2. But in the left column You can click on the heading "Download" Now you go to  http://www.pharo-project.org/pharo-download which gives you two different one-click choices, but without any explanation of the difference between Cog VM and standard VM.
2A. And if you look down further on that page, there are lots of 'custom' choices, one of which is a Windows Installer, apparently of the most recent version, but that one says it uses the unexplained 'Cog' vm.
3. Wait!! On the home page, you can assume that the latest release is 1.2.1 in the left column, and this takes you to http://www.pharo-project.org/pharo-download/release-1-2-1 which now give you 3 choices to download, one of which is a one-click, but is it Cog or is it Standard?
4. Wait again!! Â On the home page, under Shortcuts on 'Stable Pharo' which immediately starts to download yet another version: currently Pharo-1.2.1-11.04.03.zip
5. And now you feel obligated to click the words 'Download Pharo' on the right column of the home page, thinking there may be even more versions to pick from. Â It takes you to another page. Deja Vu, Â it looks familiar....
So, newbie, was that clear enough for you?
-- View this message in context: http://forum.world.st/Download-choices-or-tp3440405p3440405.html Sent from the Pharo Smalltalk mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
-- Serge Stinckwich UMI UMMISCO 209 (IRD/UPMC), Hanoi, Vietnam Every DSL ends up being Smalltalk http://doesnotunderstand.org/
On Apr 11, 2011, at 04:43 , Serge Stinckwich wrote:
There should be i guess just one download page. On the first page, there is some downloads links in the three columns. If you look at the python language website, there is only one download page, the same for Ruby.
Yep!
Adrian take care of the website if i remember. I know from experience this a really boring task. If we want to scale to a small team of volunteers, what could be done to simplify the modification of pages ? I know that the website currently used is based on Cmsbox and this is great showcase for Pharo&Smalltalk, but maybe an automatically generated html website with the help of tools like webgen or something similar with the pages on a git repository somewhere could help the management.
I don't think we have a tool issue here. We already have several people that help with managing the website and that works pretty well. I think the confusion about what to download can be addressed by providing less options. Maybe we just have too many of them... The initial idea was that in particular newcomers would just download the one-click image. In the meantime we got a one-click image with and without COG. Then people asked for direct shortcuts on the home page for the stable core, the unstable core, and the stable full image. Of course this makes everything very complicated for people who don't know what they want/need. So we should think again about what images we want to provide for download and how to link them. Cheers, Adrian
participants (4)
-
Adrian Lienhard -
DougEdmunds -
Fernando Olivero -
Serge Stinckwich