A possible alternative draft of the text on the front page: Sage is an open source mathematics software package. It combines and builds on many existing open source packages, unifying them with a common interface and language, and also provides many things which cannot be found in any other package. The language of Sage is the very popular language Python. You can use Sage via a graphical notebook interface in a web browser, via a powerful command line interface, as a library in a Python program or by embedding commands directly into a LaTeX document. Sage provides a completely self-contained and extensively tested distribution of mathematical software which runs on a wide variaety of computer systems. Sage is under active development by a large community of people with backgrounds in mathematics, statistics, physics, biology and computer science.
John 2008/5/14 Robert Bradshaw <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > > I think it is very nice and fresh. +1 to most of the feedback given > so far, especially being able to see the link destination when > hovering. In addition: > > 1. One thing I liked about the old site was its use of icons > (unfortunately, as it has evolved, the top part "announcement" of the > page has gotten longer these have been basically pushed off the > screen.) This helps one visually make connections without even having > to read. I think they'd go well on the new page (even if made > monochromatic and placed in a line on the bottom or something, a la > SD4 t-shirt). > > 2. On a similar note, maybe simple (shadowy in-the-background?) icons > for the download, search, etc. links. I'd have to see it to be sure. > > 3. The "features" page is more about getting started/user interface. > It doesn't really explain what Sage does (which should be somewhere-- > at least a blurb about the wide range of mathematics that Sage can > handle. The lines "This is a showcase of Sage features. It > presents ... Sage is. " seems rather redundant. Maybe not on this > page, but somewhere close, should be a list of all the components in > Sage. > > 4. I don't like the justified look of the publications page. > Actually, I think it'd look better as a single column. Also, "extern" > seems odd, I'd call it "news" or something and just have the blogs, > publications, and perhaps a couple of announcements. > > - Robert > > > On May 13, 2008, at 7:33 PM, William Stein wrote: > >> >> Hi, >> >> A while ago we had a huge thread on sage-devel with lots of criticism >> that I dutifly >> listened to which resulted in the current sagemath.org frontpage. >> Every >> sentence of the current sagemath.org page got carefully written and >> rewritten >> numerous times based on *your* feedback. >> >> Recently I asked Harald Schilly to spend some time and create a new >> fresh website design for Sage. His new design is here: >> >> http://lite.sagemath.org/ >> >> It rocks! It just looks modern. >> >> However, please, look at it, and criticize it! People *will* decide >> between using Sage and not based on just the web page, so this >> really does matter. I assure you that we can take >> any criticism you throw our way. But please take a look, >> show the demo page to your friends, get feedback, etc. Now >> is the time. >> >> I'll start. Since these are all suggestions for ways to change >> lite.sagemath.org, >> perhaps for the worse, please feel free to criticize them too. >> >> 1. I will start out by saying that the page looks too blue to me; so >> blue it is hard for me to look at it. If the background were a bit >> lighter >> I personally would find the page vastly easier to read. Right >> now it hurts my eyes. >> >> 2. At the top right it says "please report problems of new website". >> This doesn't sound like correct English. Maybe just delete "of new >> website". >> >> 3. The title is "Sage Computer Algebra System". I personally really >> don't like the term "computer algebra system" to refer to Sage, >> since I >> think it unduly limits Sage to just "computer algebra", though Sage >> does >> much much more than that. That's why I like the term "open source >> mathematical software" much more. >> >> 4. I think the dash in "open-source" on the intro page is perhaps >> technically >> correct but is completely not needed, since nobody uses it and >> there is >> no chance of confusion. >> >> 5. This sentence on the opening page is horrible: "It provides an >> entire in >> itself closed distribution of various software packages and is >> actively >> developed by many people." It needs to be rewritten a lot. "closed >> distribution" >> doesn't sound right at all -- it suggests "closed source". Maybe >> "complete"? >> >> >> Thanks!! >> >> William >> >> >> -- >> William Stein >> Associate Professor of Mathematics >> University of Washington >> http://wstein.org >> >> > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ To post to this group, send email to sage-devel@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sage-devel URLs: http://www.sagemath.org -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
