[Biopython-dev] Work on an updated biopython.org website

[Brad Chapman]

Jeff and Iddo;
Thanks for the feedback. I'm glad it looks alright -- I'm definitely no
web design genius; thank god for Chris getting the open-bio page up
first!

> A few comments:
> 
> - A contact email address should be on the front page somewhere.  
> Something like, "To contact us, write biopython at biopython.org"
> 
> - Is there a way to put the current version of the software (e.g. 
> Current Release: Biopython 1.10) on the front page?  This way, people 
> will know at a glance if they're up to date.  It would be best if it 
> could be automatically sync'd with the Download page.  It's no use if 
> the version number displayed on the web page is out of date!  :)

Good ideas. I added these to the front page.

Keeping the front page version synched with the download information is
pretty easy with the Quixote framework. For making a new release you
should just need to modify the version number of the download page,
specify the download files available in a python list and it should be
all set. Hopefully this'll make it easier for us to keep everything
simple and up to date.

> 
> - Can we simplify the links on the right side?  Probably all that's 
> necessary is:
> Home
> Download
> Documentation
> Mailing Lists
> Bugs
> CVS  (contains ViewCVS, instructions to get read-only and read-write 
> CVS)
> Participants (?)

Sounds good. The simpler the better.

> Is Participants useful?  What do people think?  I think it gives a more 
> personal feel to the project, but it's not kept up to date well.  Also, 
> in the participants section, we should like what general area each 
> participant works on, so that people will know who to ask questions to.

I agree with Iddo. I like the Participants page. What I'd like to do is
make this dynamic so that people can add themselves with a form right on
the web. We'd just have some sort of simple password so random people on
the web can't be jerks, and then everyone can be responsible for
themselves. I'll solicit more feedback on what people want on the page
when I get to that.

> Is a FAQ link necessary?  Is it useful?  It's not up to date.  Maybe it 
> should be linked from the Documentation page, if at all.

We should be keeping a FAQ, I think, but just like all the other docs we
need someone to maintain it. I think the best idea is to just link to it
from the Documentation page.

BTW, I think we should just get rid of the wiki. It doesn't really seem
to get much use and is just another thing that will get out of date. I
love wikis, but stay simple. Stay simple.

> - Is webteam and Chris OK with using Quixotic?

That I don't know. This is one reason I wrote about it, cause I don't
want to go too far with it and find out people don't like it for one
reason or another.

It's pretty easy to install. All we'd need to get the current page up on
biopython.org is a working python, quixote, mxDateTime and HTMLgen.
Shouldn't be too difficult. It just uses standard cgi scripts, so
hopefully it'll be pretty easy to maintain and things.

Chris? Whadda you all think?

Thanks again for the feedback!
Brad