Talk:Main2a

This is a suggestion for a new front page layout for riscos.info

Please note that the only non-wiki markup involved is the google stuff, lifted off the front page.

Also, the news, projects and articles pages are the linked pages from the front, so any updates to those will also show here. For reference, these are displayed as a two column table with a nested table in the righthand column with two rows. Jymbob 11:46, 26 March 2008

On Firefox 2.0.0.12 (Ubuntu) I get the 'Articles and Tutorials' section overprinting the news items from 25 December and earlier to the extent that neither are readable. I don't know quite what is controlling their positioning in the code to adjust it. Caliston 12:38, 28 March 2008 (UTC)

Caliston, can you send me a screenshot as I can't reproduce it here? Also what OS, what screen res and what plugins are you running? The page should be generated with a floated element as the recent news, and everything is is table-based. I can only presume it's ignoring something. Is the projects section in line with the articles section? Jymbob 16:05, 28 March 2008 (UTC)

I saw the same on FF-2 on Windows XP at 1280x1024. I also noticed that the Recent News box tends to float above the Welcome to RISC OS Info box on my NetSurf until I resize and reflow the window. My default size for newly-opened NetSurf windows is only slightly over 800x600 (out of a screenm res of 1280x1024 or larger), and my minimum font size is 14pts, so the amount of RO.info content I can see initially is tiny. Simon Smith 10:17, 29 March 2008 (UTC)

Probably won't have time to play, but I think the 'Articles' 'Projects' and 'Recent News' are way too long for the front page. In general I reckon no more than about 6 entries for each. My planned changes for Main3, if anyone else wants to try it out before I get there are:


 * Articles and Tutorials reduced to


 * Guidelines for Citing
 * How to Edit
 * General RISC OS
 * RISC OS Programming
 * Hardware Information


 * RISC OS Projects reduced to

half-width column:
 * Compilers - convert to link, have one icons for GCCSDK and one for LCC
 * Emulation - convert to link, have one icon for each emulator
 * Libraries - just convert to link
 * Translation - convert to link

full width column:
 * Applications - convert to link, have seven icons for the current apps in a line across the page. Maybe move up or down to a spot where it fits better.


 * Recent News
 * 1-3 lines (max) for 1-3 events (max)
 * date links only for the last three older events
 * items older than, say 4 months are always date links only

I do like the border round the news box. Would olike to use that more widely. Simon Smith 10:36, 29 March 2008

See Firefox screenshot (which may only be around for a few days). Running Ubuntu Gutsy in 1400x1050, plugins are Adblock, Greasemonkey (no scripts), NoSquint. NoSquint is the only relevant one, but the problem happens at any text zoom setting. Caliston 18:07, 29 March 2008 (UTC)

Simon, your ideas above sound good - sorry I didn't really take them in until after constructing Main1a Perhaps some of them are relevant to that new page - in particular I've been creating it on a 1280x800 screen, but there's way too much content at default-NetSurf-size. Adamr 23:32, 31 March 2008 (BST)

Regarding oddities with the floating news box, they appear to be limited to Firefox 2, and are probably due to some odd interactions between tables and floating elements. I'll see if I can find a fix this week. I don't think it happens with any of the other pages using floating elements, does it? e.g. Cretin? Jymbob 12:59, 1 April 2008 (BST)