From: James Britt <james.britt@...>
Date: 2011-10-08T01:51:38+09:00
Subject: Re: [ANN] ruby-doc.org has been updated

Eric Christopherson wrote:
> 
> [Replying on the list since everyone else is doing it -- apologies.]

Short-term OK, long-term, not the best way to get my attention since I 
don't usually follow the list that closely anymore.

> 
> It looks very nice. However, a few bad things stand out:
> 
> 1. I always have to scroll horizontally. I'm probably more picky about
> keeping my browser size fixed (and non-maximized) than most people; so
> at my preferred browser size, the content doesn't fit horizontally.

What size is good for you?

> Even when I maximize it, it doesn't quite fit, since I have a wide
> taskbar at the left edge. When I hide my taskbar and maximize the
> browser, I can see all of the content except for a few code examples
> that run off the edge (for example, the code in
> instance_variable_set(symbol, obj) → obj under Object); there is still
> a horizontal scrollbar.

OK.

> 
> (I'm seeing this with more and more sites these days, so it might be
> that designers don't worry about fitting horizontal space anymore, and
> I need to adjust. But I'd rather not :) )

I generally assume 960px or so is reasonable.

> 
> 2. I'm a little on the fence about this one, but ultimately I'd prefer
> the text color to be black for non-focused text as well as focused.

I'm looking at adding switchable stylyesheets since for every 
light-on-dark fan there's a dark-on-light fan, etc.  So, if nothing 
else, offering an obvious high-contrast style would be useful to a 
number of people.

> The gray background around focused text is enough to make it stand
> out; the gray text sort of looks like something my brain should ignore
> (which might be good for some people, but I'd like to be able to
> comfortably read the descriptions of all the methods without moving my
> cursor).
> 
> 3. When you type in a filter term under Classes, the area containing
> the classes shrinks, causing the method area to come over to the left.
> It would be nicer if it stayed the same size. (As an aside: it might
> be nice if the list of methods automatically got narrowed down to just
> methods available in the classes found by the filter.)

Work is in progress on the JavaScript (thanks, Phrogz!)  The 
method-reduction is part of that (which is a very good idea).

> 
> 4. Another one I'm on the fence about: put certain very common classes
> up at the top (and then show them again in alphabetical order). I'm
> not sure how to decide which classes get listed at the top, but
> certainly Object should. (Ultimately, maybe there could be an optional
> tree view of class relationships.)


The main index needs work.  It follows a pattern that works OK for a 
single gem or library, but not so OK for a massive set of classes.

I may steal the arrangement used by the default YARD template.



> 
> 5. It would be nice to have filtering of methods, etc. on the class pages.


Isn't that there?  if you click on the icon next to "Class/Module index" 
it should open a search box.

Perhaps that's not entirely obvious ...

> 
> 6. Maybe link to RXR instead of raw source.
> 
> I'm excited to see how the discussions work out.
> 
> Someone else mentioned that you get frames if you click stdlib along
> the top; is that just linking to an old version of the site?
> 

I kept the old layout for that for assorted reasons, but that needs more 
attention.  I didn't want to keep putting off what updates I already 
had, waiting until everything was Just So.  I'd never be done. :)

It's a work in progress, and the feedback is welcome.


Thanks,


James Britt