Putting the logo in the corner or line under the title solves only half of the problem, IMHO. Yes, you can determine which packages are core and which are community, however you still can't differentiate at a glance which is which. Although it is an improvement, it is still a pain in practice since one needs to check each link to see the provenance of a package/library. Where there are clearly a few different packages for a given thing, this can cost time and aggravation. For instance, there are two or three packages for parsing html, two for json, two or three for OpenGL and so forth. Which is a core library? Which is a toy that someone made to explore that particular domain and try out the package system? Which is a production tool that someone built to solve an actual problem they were facing?
Another possible way might be to have each item have effectively a bullet point on the main page, but the bullet point is an icon; the stylized Racket Lambda icon for core packages and a different one for community supplied ones. For instance, a stylized group of people like here: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=community+icon&iax=1&ia=images The fact that community generated packages are on the front docs page still gives them equal status, even while clearly indicating their origin. To address Matthew's point of some community packages being more idiomatic or easier to work with than some core racket libraries, I don't think obfuscating their origin necessarily helps users discover alternative packages more easily. Most often, users (in any software ecosystem) will learn that one package is easier/better/faster/friendlier by asking around on mailing lists, chat groups or user forums. If people don't ask in those places, then it essentially becomes a coin toss. "Which package do I try out first?" Then they will either stick with the first one they try because it is good enough, or they will go to the next one because the first one wasn't good enough. With differentiating the packages, it takes out the coin toss which takes time and energy. Yes, I may end up using a community provided package because the core package isn't quite up to snuff for my needs, but at least I didn't need to wonder which one I should try first. As it is, a new user is flying somewhat blind. Also, +1 what Lehi said; more than once I have tried to `(require)` something, thinking it was part of the standard install and then been barked at because I need to go out and fetch the package first. -- Ethan Estrada | CTO & COO M: 801-669-1598 | E: et...@metapipe.com The Startup Building | 560 S 100 W STE 1, Provo UT 84601-4570 MetaPipe.com Making the Cloud easy to use for VFX and Animation On Mon, Jan 30, 2017 at 3:02 PM, Dupéron Georges < jahvascriptman...@gmail.com> wrote: > Le lundi 30 janvier 2017 22:13:57 UTC+1, Matthew Butterick a écrit : > > Recently we added a Racket logo to the upper right of the public doc > pages. We could do something where this logo changed depending on whether > the package belonged to core or community or whatever. Then we wouldn't > need to actually cleave the docs into two websites (which IMO is > counterproductive). > > I agree with Matthew Butterick that splitting the docs into two websites > would be counterproductive. As a user, I don't want to have to remember > whether this package happens to be in main-distribution or not, and look up > one website or the other. The same applies when searching for a > functionality: I would rather avoid having to search on two different > websites. > > The logo idea seems like a nice compromise. > > Another possibility would be to change the packages so that they display > somewhere below the title "Part of the community package foo", "Part of the > main Racket distribution" or "Part of the minimal Racket distribution". As > far as I can tell, this would require cooperation from the packages > (modifying the scribble files), unless Scribble forcefully inserts the text > (like the "v.6.8" above the title). > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to a topic in the > Google Groups "Racket Users" group. > To unsubscribe from this topic, visit https://groups.google.com/d/ > topic/racket-users/bDkB2H8VO_I/unsubscribe. > To unsubscribe from this group and all its topics, send an email to > racket-users+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Racket Users" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to racket-users+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
