[wx-discuss] Applications page, user feedback

[Julian Smart]

Hi Kevin,

I do appreciate your work, and sorry if it seemed otherwise, it's just 
that the details of the Applications UI isn't entirely intuitive (or 
maybe I'm just impatient, but I do think it could be improved). Since 
AFAIK you didn't write the code for this you can hardly be blamed for it.

As for one page versus a hierarchy, I think it depends what the surfer 
is looking for. If I arrive at a site and want to get a quick impression 
of what people are doing with the product, then one or two pages is 
sufficient - I wouldn't want to have to drill down into a hierarchy, I 
just want to scroll through a page getting an impression, maybe clicking 
if something is of particular interest. On the other hand, if wanting to 
download and use a particular app, then one page obviously isn't 
sufficient. So I guess the one-page format is a showcase kind of thing 
and should be maintained seperately (or as a different view). The Twiki 
concept is interesting, I'll have a look at it.

Anyway, apologies for my insensitive choice of words.

Regards,

Julian

Kevin Ollivier wrote:
> Hi Julian,
>
> I really don't have time to go through this again, but as for your 
> suggestion, I personally think that having all our applications on one 
> page says one thing to (perspective) wx users very clearly - that the 
> number of wx apps are small enough that we think one page is enough to 
> fit them all. I'll briefly mention (once again) the new site's 
> automated broken link checking (we had LOTS of broken links on the old 
> page), the fact that users can (and do) update entries themselves, and 
> lastly, that people are actually reporting broken links via the web 
> site at a rate that is probably much more often than on the old page, 
> meaning some people are getting fairly actively involved in the site.
>
> In short, a single page with old apps and lots of broken links screams 
> both "there aren't many wx apps" and "no one cares about this page", 
> but if that's the signal you want to send because for some reason a 
> couple clicks and filling out a simple form is causing you this much 
> frustration (and you aren't happy with alternatives), then hell, I'm 
> tired of trying to stick up for my work against a tide of criticism. 
> (Well, it's not total criticism; the users often thank me when they 
> learn they can add/update entries themselves and for my work on the 
> site, but then again my interactions with the user community are in 
> general much more pleasant for some reason.)
>
> Regards,
>
> Kevin
>
> On Jan 20, 2007, at 8:03 AM, Julian Smart wrote:
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> Since the new wxWidgets web site went live, I've been at a losss to 
>> know where to put descriptions of applications that people send me. 
>> The current Applications link goes to the downloads page at 
>> wxCommunity and the interface is so horrible I can't bring myself to 
>> create an entry every time someone sends a description. It's not 
>> really a good place to browse for wxWidgets-using applications 
>> anyway, with its hierarchical structure (the old Applications page 
>> was easy to scan through). We've lost quite a few entries that 
>> weren't transferred to wxCommunity, e.g. Vulcan 3D.
>>
>> So, should we reinstate the old Applications page? Or have a Wiki 
>> page, where the app authors can enter information themselves? Or just 
>> put this kind of information in the Users page, since it duplicates 
>> some of the Applications content anyway? Actually I think this is my 
>> preferred solution.
>>
>> I don't mind maintaining an HTML page, at least I have somewhere to 
>> put the information.
>>
>> Any thoughts?
>>
>> Here's an excerpt of a description that I received yesterday - very 
>> encouraging to see someone migrating from Qt.
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>> Julian
>>
>> "I have been using wxWidgets for more than a year now and would like 
>> to present you the application we developed in our team. This is 
>> called MedINRIA and it is dedicated to medical imaging processing and 
>> visualization. In case you would agree to include it in the "users" 
>> section of the wxWidgets website, this mail contents the online 
>> survey requested. We have put lots of screenshots of the software 
>> running on our webpage, feel free to use them if you wish:
>>
>> http://www-sop.inria.fr/asclepios/software/MedINRIA/screenshots/
>>
>> Thanks in advance and congratulations for providing the developer 
>> community with such a wonderful toolkit.
>>
>> Comments: I switched from Qt to GTK to wxWidgets. wxWidgets is by far 
>> the best cross-platform GUI toolkit I ever used. What seduced me is 
>> the convenience of c++, the handiness of the sizers that are very 
>> logical to me, and the fact that each wx port uses the native widgets 
>> of the targeted platform. Source code is clear, maintenance is easy 
>> to do and I found the toolkit very mature, and it gets even better 
>> with the AUI of the last version. Congratulations for this excellent 
>> work and thanks for all your effort."
>>
>> --Julian Smart, Anthemion Software Ltd.
>> 28/5 Gillespie Crescent, Edinburgh, Midlothian, EH10 4HU
>> www.anthemion.co.uk | +44 (0)131 229 5306
>> Tools for writers: www.writerscafe.co.uk
>> wxWidgets RAD:     www.anthemion.co.uk/dialogblocks
>>
>>
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-- 
Julian Smart, Anthemion Software Ltd.
28/5 Gillespie Crescent, Edinburgh, Midlothian, EH10 4HU
www.anthemion.co.uk | +44 (0)131 229 5306
Tools for writers: www.writerscafe.co.uk
wxWidgets RAD:     www.anthemion.co.uk/dialogblocks


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