Re: [Savannah-hackers-public] GNU Savannah website design

[郭云鹤]

Hi, I think I can answer some question that you mentioned.

1. One time effort or long term work

I am glad to join the community and take it as a long term work.

Now I am a master student. I have a good knowledge of HTML and basics of PHP. I think I can contribute to this project.

When I want to find the code of GNU Octave, I know Savannah. It is a good platform to host free software of GNU.

2. Modern or Old

This can be solved by technology. We can give a simple and a modern theme template. Users can switch by clicking menu or choose in their preference settings.

For people using text browser or screen reader, we can adjust the structure of HTML to make everything fine.

3. Collaboration

Yes, we only need time and improve it step by step.

Guo Yunhe - http://guoyunhe.me/

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On 周六, 9月 20, 2014 at 1:20 上午, Assaf Gordon <address@hidden> wrote:

Hello Guo Yunhe,

( This emails continues a previous discussion on sv-users: http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/savannah-users/2014-09/msg00001.html  and a submission on Savannah:  http://savannah.gnu.org/task/?13324 )

Thank you for suggesting a new web design.
There are certainly issues with the current design.
I also like how you summarized all the styles in "define.html" - makes it easier to get a 'feel' for your design.
It's also good (IMHO) that you've made this design without any _javascript_, just CSS.

First,
A technical question: I assume you do not intend to turn this into a full-fledged stand-alone software project to be hosted on GNU Savannah - can I close the project submission and we'll continue the discussion here?


Second,
I agree with your observation: the GNU Savannah website design has an 'older' feel to it - reminding websites from the early 2000 and not similar to the sleeker and 'modern' websites of today.
Some people might prefer the older look, others might prefer a more modern look ("flat" or not, bootstrap-like, responsive and other buzzwords).

Personal preferences aside,
I think that changing the GNU Savannah website is a much more complicated tasks then just updating few HTML or CSS files. The Front-End code is based on PHP (and perhaps some perl), and is tightly integrated with the logic code.

Additionally, GNU Savannah (and other GNU-related website) have a goal of being accessible from many web browser, not necessity modern ones (including even text-mode browsing) - so using the latest-and-greatest web-design features is not always an option.

And more: GNU Savannah is maintained by volunteers, and there are very few of them.
A change in the design will require close supervision and support, to ensure any glitches on any exotic web-browsers will be fixed and addressed.


If you are interested in long-term help for the Savannah website, help is always appreciated.

If this is a one-time attempt, then your design suggestions will certainly help if/when the time comes to update the code - but it will not happen immediately.

Regards,
  -Assaf