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From: David Abrahams (dave_at_[hidden])
Date: 2005-04-28 07:42:57


"Jeff Garland" <jeff_at_[hidden]> writes:

> On Wed, 27 Apr 2005 17:09:56 -0400, David Abrahams wrote
>
>> Someone at ACCU suggested that we have a "libraries overview page"
>> that contains a short introduction and a mini-tutorial example for
>> each of the libraries. I think it's a great idea and would vastly
>> increase accessibility of the libraries.
>
> Good idea, but what does it mean in practical fact? It would be a
> hugely long page to have a tutorial of all the libraries.

Make that a micro-tutorial then. It's supposed to be just enough to
get an idea.

> Just putting the library list no longer fits on a single page. We
> already have libraries by category.

Yep. It would be long.

> Several years ago I had the idea that a graphical view of the library
> categories might be a nice way to navigate among the libraries. My little
> prototype is still on the wiki (each category is a hyperlink to the category
> on the libs by category page).
>
> http://www.crystalclearsoftware.com/cgi-bin/boost_wiki/wiki.pl?BoostUserFAQ

Doesn't work for me. IMO the graphics add nothing. Why not just a
table if you like grids?

> Now I can imagine we could do other things like bring up lists of
> the libraries in a category, etc. Is it better than a simple text
> list? I personally like it better, but it certainly never caught
> on.
>
> Another idea is to make get the library documentation links
> immediately available from the front page. Make the front page 3
> columns and have all the libraries or at least the categories listed
> on the left column...

That sounds like a good idea, but of course it addresses a different
need.

> Yet another idea would be to have a single page library teaser,
> including code example, linked available from the library list. So
> a few sentences of intro text and some code examples as a really
> fast intro that people could scan to get the gist of the library in
> action.

That is in the same ballpark as what I suggested. However, having to
click through to the material will make it harder for a user to get an
overall picture of what's in Boost.

-- 
Dave Abrahams
Boost Consulting
www.boost-consulting.com

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