User:Jymbob

Jymbob is a wannabe RISC OS programmer, but he's not actually all that competent, yet.

He's the maintainer of Cretin, a fully 32bit IRC client, and can usually be found in #riscos and #cretin on IRCNet.

Idea: Multiple users, a simple, RISC OS savvy suggestion

Got married in June.

Site re-design

Please leave comments about site re-design below.

I'll get back to you.

Well Jymbob, it is February 2008 now. I am not sure whether ro-connect and ro-future are in anyway competitors to ro-info. I am sorry to say that ro-info appears to be moribund, judging by those "last modified" dates. It could well be that the depressing appearance of the site is partly to blame (I am using NetSurf as default browser). The font is rather mean and small, text straggles off to the right. What is needed is for users to be able to edit their own css files. Designing a one-style-for-all system is hopelessly fascist. For those whom css daunts, providing a selection of default files, which users could then personalize and play with, would be appropriate. The current style, which I have seen on many wikis, I do not like - it looks mean, somehow. I guess it comes down to how flexible the off-the-peg wiki is. GavinW

To answer your questions as best I can: "RISC OS Connect does not seek to replace various other on-line efforts such as riscos.info and RISC OS Open." from their website. I haven't personally come across ro-future (and googling doesn't seem to help), so couldn't comment.

What ro-info could do with regarding updates is someone to collate useful information. At the moment, it's something of a mish-mash of software reviews, hardware information and technical pages about the GCC project. I've a feeling the front page is a large part of the issue with this, but I can't personally work out what it should look like. I'd agree the front page is rather uninspiring.

Regarding CSS files, please understand that I don't have access to the ftp for riscos.info so I have no way to edit any CSS files used on the site. I'd tend to agree that several different CSS files should be optional. However, I was planning on improving the look of the default site first. I have so far received no suggestions about how the site should look. If you have any ideas I'd be more than happy to hear them and try to implement them.

I often view the site in Netsurf with no real issues.

I can't see any easy way of providing an editable CSS file for each user, but someone with more experience of how a MediaWiki is put together might know of something.

Might I suggest you try out some of the different styles listed in your preferences? you can just add "&useskin=cologneblue" to the end of a URL for a quick view of one of the other options.

If you could send me a screenshot of what you mean by "The font is rather mean and small, text straggles off to the right" I'll see if I can suggest a solution. jymbob@ntlworld.com will get to me fairly quickly. Jymbob 14:56, 6 February 2008 (UTC)

Front page

I do think the front page in particular is getting very flabby. I may have a go at some other front page designs that cut out some of the cruft. Simon Smith 15:40, 6 February 2008 (UTC)

My 2p ;)

I don't agree that riscos.info has got overtaken. I think it's chugging along nicely! I do agree that the front page has always been a bit busy - for instance the news section really shouldn't have whole separate headings for each item, each month etc.

I don't have access to the ftp for riscos.info [...]
I have so far received no suggestions about how the site should look.

I recommend raising this on the riscos.info mailing list - I dread having a "discussion" on this wiki page! It's also more likely to get interest from people with the privileges to actually make changes. As for layout suggestions, I can't help there, having very few creative skills.

One personal request I'd have regarding CSS is more distinction between the different levels of heading. THe page I put together for DeskLib looks nicely structured in the contents bit, but when you're actually reading the page it's very hard to see the difference between the different levels of heading.

Oh, another thing - I'd like to change the links on the left hand side - adding a (within-site) search box and removing the unused "Current Events" link, for instance - something else to discuss on the mailing list.
Adamr 19:48, 6 February 2008 (UTC)

CSS

It seems you can access CSS at MediaWiki:Common.css and MediaWiki:Monobook.css and user-specific CSS at something like User:Caliston/monobook.css. Monobook is the default skin - you can choose the skin for your login at Special:Preferences. So we could either change the global default to something else or hack the Monobook stylesheet. wikidev.net has more, and at the bottom links to a Gallery of user styles. I've just been playing but I can't make any of this change any styles, nor can I find a sysadmin option in Special:Specialpages - so maybe it's something Peter has to enable in the PHP. Caliston 00:12, 7 February 2008 (UTC)

Discussion

see http://www.riscos.info/pipermail/gcc/2008-February/004217.html

--Pnaulls 16:59, 14 February 2008 (UTC)

I've sketched out a sample page: Main1 and added some thoughts to the mailing list thread.
Adamr 12:52, 16 February 2008 (UTC)

I'm just adding a wireframe layout as Main2 as an alternative suggestion. I don't think the colour scheme is the problem, it's the clutter. General rule of page design; allocate screen area in proportion to importance. - and for a Wiki it's fair to allocate space according to the number of articles on a given area. My original mockup was done in Draw in a few minutes as you'd expect. A4 page, grid lock on, 1cm grid, Homerton 14pt text, line width 1. It's easy to move things around and create your own layout from this sort of setup. Simon Smith 18:21, 23 February 2008 (UTC)

Changes

I've brought in some of Adam's ideas as a starting point, since that was pretty easy. Simon has good points, but that's going to take some more time. If nothing else, I've lost some of the wasted white space. Simon, want to try further with an actual wiki page and see how you go? --Pnaulls 19:02, 24 February 2008 (UTC)

Progress

Please see here.