[Bioperl-l] a Main Page proposal

[Chris Fields]

On Sep 21, 2009, at 10:59 PM, Jonathan Cline wrote:

> Throwing this out there:
>
> - there should be a screenshot section (whatever that means for  
> bioperl)

The only area that would apply is for Gbrowse/Bio::Graphics.  For much  
of the rest that's a bit trickier, but it's possible.

> - the grammar of the beta page should be more correct.
>
> "Welcome to BioPerl, a community effort to produce Perl code which is
> useful in biology. "
> ==> "Welcome to BioPerl, a community effort to produce Perl code  
> serving
> as useful tool in the field of Biology."
>
>>> The About section is a good example. I would bet most visitors to  
>>> the
> BioPerl website skip over the About section because they already  
> know what
> BioPerl is, ...  Dave<<
>
> Most good software front pages say, in a couple sentences, "what it is
> and what it's for", including pictures (as screenshots).

Right.

> I would bet a ton of visitors don't know what bioperl is, or what it  
> is
> used for, or how it can benefit.  There is likely a metric for this  
> (web
> stats) as the ratio of new page visits that bounce away vs. new
> clickthrus from the front page to the download or docs section.    
> i.e. a
> visitor found the page and didn't continue reading.  I don't really  
> know
> all the things bioperl is good for and I've been reading about it  
> here &
> there for a while.
>
> I like the following from the About and I believe it fits well on a
> front page, expanding "toolkit" to "software library":
>
> "What is Bioperl? It is an open source bioinformatics software library
> used by researchers all over the world. If you're looking for a script
> built to fit your exact needs you probably won't find it in Bioperl.
> What you will find is a diverse set of Perl modules that will enable  
> you
> to write your own script, and a community of people who are willing to
> help you. "
>
> The old school definition of software library is something like:  
> "useful
> routines which can be used by an application (& not itself an
> application)" which is basically the description above.
>
> I also like the intro from wikipedia, which I found more informative
> about bioperl, and would be good for a front page:
>
> 'BioPerl [1] is a collection of Perl modules that facilitate the
> development of Perl scripts for bioinformatics applications. It has
> played an integral role in the Human Genome Project.[2]  It is an  
> active
> open source software project supported by the Open Bioinformatics
> Foundation.  In order to take advantage of BioPerl, the user needs a
> basic understanding of the Perl programming language including an
> understanding of how to use Perl references, modules, objects and  
> methods."
>
> The screenshots could also include pics of books on bioperl or perl 
> +bio,
> that would be neat.  (Tisdall's book comes to mind here)

I tend to agree here, but Tisdall only discusses BioPerl in detail in  
the second book (Mastering Perl for Bioinformatics).  I think we're  
safe as long as we indicate that, just don't want to run into a  
situation like the recent issue that some users had with Gentleman's  
'R for Bioinformatics' book released last year.

I don't think it was intentional, but a lot of users purchased it  
thinking it would be a BioConductor book, mainly b/c it was advertised  
on the BioConductor website.  Unfortunately it had very little to do  
with BioC (or bioinformatics, really), and the reviews of the book  
reflect that.  It's unfortunate, as I found it to be a pretty good  
book on R.

-c

> ## Jonathan Cline
> ## jcline at ieee.org
> ## Mobile: +1-805-617-0223
> ########################