[Bioperl-l] a Main Page proposal

[Chris Fields]

On Sep 21, 2009, at 7:28 AM, Peter wrote:

> Peter wrote:
>>> We had some similar discussions about the Biopython wiki
>>> based homepage - although our old one was nowhere near
>>> as busy as the current BioPerl main page, it was still not as
>>> welcoming as our current version *tries* to be.
>>> ...
>>> I can dig out links to our mailing list archive if anyone is
>>> interested in the discussion.
>
> On Mon, Sep 21, 2009 at 12:32 PM, Mark A. Jensen wrote:
>>
>> I'd appreciate those links, Peter- thanks
>> MAJ
>
> OK, here you are - this was most of it, I'd have to dig though
> my old emails to see what else I can find:
> http://lists.open-bio.org/pipermail/biopython-dev/2009-April/005867.html
>
> Remember Biopython went from a very minimal home page, to
> something aiming to be more newcomer friendly. BioPerl on the
> other hand seems to want to move away from the current very
> text heavy information rich page to something more focused and
> newcomer friendly. To me at least the current page is too dense,
> intimidating, and the important bits get lost in all the content.
>
> [My apologies if any of this feedback come accross too blunt.]

Not at all; I'm thinking the same thing.

> If you haven't already looked at them, you should checkout the
> other OBF project pages for ideas. The BioJava homepage is
> also using the wiki - in my opinion it is a bit cluttered, but is
> still more accessible than the current BioPerl page. Also,
> the BioRuby page is very nice - although not wiki based.
>
> Regards,
>
> Peter

I think the Biopython layout is very nice and focused.  Maybe a bit  
too minimal, but then again I don't like scrolling up and down the  
page to find the relevant bits, so less may be better.

Reminds me of the simplifed design on the perl6 main page (just don't  
stare at the hallucinogenic butterfly too long):

http://www.perl6.org/

So, maybe a structured layout with the most important links, and  
additional links on a separate page.

chris