[racket-dev] Revising Racket's home page

On Wed, Aug 21 2013, Sam Tobin-Hochstadt wrote:

> On Tue, Aug 20, 2013 at 5:30 PM, Jose A. Ortega Ruiz <jao at gnu.org> wrote:
>> On Tue, Aug 20 2013, Neil Van Dyke wrote:
>>
>>> Sam Tobin-Hochstadt wrote at 08/20/2013 09:52 AM:
>>>> Can you say more about why this is? Is it the pictures?
>>>>
>>>
>>> Yes, I scroll down the page and I see pictures and a simple picture
>>> language, and it seems to be using them to introduce some pretty
>>> simple and familiar concepts, so I assume it's for children.
>>
>> FWIW, i get the exact same feeling.
>
> I think this is a sign that we need to revise the tutorial, not that
> we need to not link to it. For example, Quick is the only tutorial
> that doesn't assume the reader knows Lisp notation.

Probably... i mostly agree with Eli's comments on this regard in his
answer, and his proposals include (and most of the time improve) all the
ideas i've come up with.

>> To add to the list of
>> purely subjective opinions and wishes, i would also like to see a "pure
>> hackers"-looking page i could point prejudiced colleagues to, with
>> little emphasis on the educational aspects of Racket.
>
> Relative to the page I've presented, what would be removed?  The Quick
> tutorial (but see above) and all or some of the books?  The Redex book
> is certainly advanced, but I don't know if it has the appeal you're
> looking for.  Anything else?

I like the idea (Eli's again, i think) of giving the books less
prominence using popups for the text.  At any rate, i'd make community
links appear before the book descriptions.  The big fonts (and i realize
this is such a subjective thing that it sounds a bit silly) also somehow
transmit that non-hackish impression i get.

Also, i find the "Go further" columns a bit too verbose: a simple list
of the most remarkable features, with hyperlinks, would occupy less
space and, IMHO, be more informative: if i know what you're talking
about there, i don't need the brief surrounding explanations, and, if i
don't, i'm not sure those blurbs are gonna help (and i'm worried that to
someone not knowing you guys and your amazing work all these years they
could sound a bit like a buzzwordy add).

Perhaps a better way to explain what i have in mind when i say "pure
hackers looking page" is to give you the example of http://ocaml.org and,
to a lesser degree, http://haskell.org.

All that said, i'm not sure i would trust my own taste as a webpage
designer :-)

Cheers,
jao
-- 
Nothing is so firmly believed as what is least known.
 -Michel de Montaigne, essayist (1533-1592)