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Hi all |
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|
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Let me start with welcoming you all to this Gentoo subproject. It is with |
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great pleasure that I start this mailinglist because of some very interested |
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contributors and developers. I hope we can work together closely to redesign |
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the Gentoo website. |
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|
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This mailinglist is primarily meant for discussions on the layout of the |
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Gentoo website (from which we can deviate a bit, but not much, since it was |
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elected by our community), the structure of the Gentoo website (think |
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sitemap) and the backend of the Gentoo website (the underlying XSLT code and |
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XML formats). |
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|
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Although you will receive information on how the Gentoo webnodes (we have |
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several systems that operate under the same URL) interact, this is no place |
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to discuss the infrastructure on Gentoo. That privilege is preserved to the |
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infrastructure team who has probably far more experience in maintaining such |
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environments. |
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|
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At this moment of writing, the Gentoo developers that made the initial |
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choice between all submitted designs and the publicised list of designs is |
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subscribed. Others will undoubtedly join quickly (if they aren't yet) since |
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their knowledge on particular subjects has been requested. I also hope to |
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welcome lots of contributors that are willing to donate some of their free |
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time to the development of this redesign. |
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|
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Now what is the current status? |
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|
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Well, Aaron has won the election and has already updated his design to suit |
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the various comments that were made on the Gentoo Forum [1]. This updated |
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design is currently available at http://www.aaronshi.com/gentoo but will |
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shortly be moved to our CVS so concurrent development can happen. |
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|
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Aaron should have finished his exams by now (he had his last ones this week |
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iirc) so he should join the upcoming discussions shortly. |
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|
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I have also put out a first thought on the structure of the Gentoo website |
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(the www.gentoo.org front). I'll repost here: |
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|
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Main page |
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+- About |
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| +- History (Extend current history with release history) |
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| +- Metadistribution (Will need to write this one) |
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| +- Advantages (Substitutes "Performance" which is outdated) |
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| `- Philosophy |
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+- Community |
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| +- Forums |
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| +- Mailinglists |
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| +- IRC |
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| `- Weekly Newsletter |
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+- Development |
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| +- Gentoo Projects (With link to Gentoo Hosted Projects) |
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| +- Bugs |
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| +- Online CVS |
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| +- Developer List (Perhaps beautify with more developer information) |
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| `- GLEPs |
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+- Download |
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| +- List of download mirrors |
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| +- List of rsync mirrors |
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| `- List of torrents |
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+- Documentation |
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+- Art (With appropriate license agreement) |
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| +- Logos |
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| +- Icons |
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| +- Themes |
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| `- Screenshots |
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+- Store |
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`- Sponsors |
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|
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Yet this is just the beginning. We should now focus on various TODOs at the |
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same time. |
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|
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First of all, the current design should be further fine-tuned. This is |
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layout-wise, not content. One shouldn't discuss the number of news items |
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that are to be printed on the main website, that's pure coding later on. We |
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use a total separation of layout <-> content, so only think on the layout. |
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|
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We probably need content-drafts for |
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- the main website (such as currently made by Aaron) |
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- the "More headlines" page |
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- "main" pages (such as http://www.gentoo.org/main/en/about.xml) |
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- "news" pages (such as http://www.gentoo.org/news/20041021-portage51.xml) |
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- "guide" pages (such as http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/gentoo-upgrading.xml) |
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- printable "guide" pages (such as http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/gentoo-upgrading.xml?style=printable) |
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|
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Note that everything else (such as a Handbook page, a Project page, the |
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project overview, ...) are currently created by the layouts defined in this |
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sort of pages. However, if you feel that for instance a Gentoo Handbook page |
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should use a different layout, don't hesitate to write up a layout change. |
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After all, we will rewrite the underlying code to suit the layout, not vice |
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versa. |
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|
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During the design, you are free to use whatever Gentoo-graphics you may find |
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on our website (don't use them elsewhere). If you want to use graphics that |
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you didn't create yourself make sure we have the right to use it (legally, |
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you should be able to use modified versions of Gentoo official graphics |
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since those are still 'owned' by Gentoo, but if you're uncertain, be sure to |
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ask - we'll pass it along to our legal team). |
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|
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After having a good layout that we can use (which shouldn't last too long as |
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Aaron has already done 95% of the work) we should target the underlying |
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XHTML code. First of all, it should be valid XHTML and CSS [2]. Second of |
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all, it should work on as many browsers as possible, /including/ Internet |
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Explorer (recent version). As as you are probably all aware, just using |
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standards doesn't fit - we will also have to limit ourselves to the |
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standards that are used by the majority of browsers. |
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|
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Don't deviate from the standards though! |
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|
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When that's finished, we will start writing our XSLT code (and, if |
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necessary, update our XML DTDs) and use a dedicated webnode to use a "beta" |
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version of the redesigned website. |
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|
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Now on to the possible questions you might have. |
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|
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Q. Do I get CVS access? |
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|
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A. If you don't have Gentoo CVS access yet (i.e. you are not a developer), |
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probably not. We might deviate from this if you are contributing major |
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stuff and are willing to continue developing for Gentoo as part of, for |
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instance, the infrastructure team. |
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|
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Q. How do I propose changes? |
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|
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A. Upload them somewhere and put the URL on the mailinglist. If you don't |
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have room where you can upload changes, contact someone (fex, me :) to |
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put it on his/her http://dev.gentoo.org/~<username> page. Or you can just |
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discuss them on the mailinglist. Depends on the change of course :) |
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|
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Q. What is the deadline? |
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|
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A. I don't like deadlines, but I will place a roadmap and a current status |
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on the redesign somewhere (I should be able to find a spot somewhere :). |
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This should be sufficient for people to see how far we have progressed |
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and how many tasks need to be done. |
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|
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Q. Will it be ready before 2005? |
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|
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A. What are you smoking? |
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|
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Q. You forgot something... |
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|
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A. Please tell us; you know the mailinglist, just post :) |
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Okay, I believe that's enough for today. I'll keep you posted with more |
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information as it comes along (such as CVS location - so you can download |
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the intermediary result from ViewCVS). |
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|
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Wkr, |
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Sven Vermeulen |
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|
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[1] http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=227589 |
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[2] http://validator.w3.org/ |
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|
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-- |
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Documentation & PR project leader |
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|
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The Gentoo Project <<< http://www.gentoo.org >>> |