Re: [exim-dev] New web site...

On Fri, 25 Feb 2005 10:57:45 +0000, Yann Golanski <yann@???> wrote:
> Frankly, static pages are a pain since no one will ever agree on simple
> things like background and text colour, images, where menus are, etc...
> CSS make this slightly easier but then you do need a log in per user
> which adds complexity to the whole thing. Besides, why should I
> register just to get a new look on the site? </rant>

I don't understand what you're saying. Why is having a dynamic
background, text color, images, menus, etc necessary? The normal CSS,
a high contrast CSS and a big text CSS...pretty standard practice for
design. It's all possible (including a nice look in lynx for no CSS)
with XHTML+CSS.

There is no requirement for a user to login...see php.net.

> It allows to have the content in a simple text files and the display in
> another. It allows for users to be able to edit bits without having
> access to the machine it's hosted on. It gives users who are bothered
> the possibility to improve the site. It allows users to have their
> own CSS and thus look.

We *don't* want anonymous people to change the content. The
documentation and FAQ are static. Adding user notes at the bottom
would be the easiest way to add commentary and helpful hints.
Remember, this isn't an encylopedia where things are open to
interpretation and updates. Phil controls the updates. User
contributions are easily handled anonymously as footnotes.

> Fundamentally, not all things suit all needs.

But in this case, doing a wiki-clone type system is overkill, complex
and introduces the issue of user access levels. Very few people
(read: Phil and Nigel) touch the documentation and FAQ.

This is how I see the site:

XHTML+CSS+PHP
- Compliant and clean code
- Looks decent in text browsers for sysadmins
- Multiple CSS layouts (normal, high contrast, large font, etc)
- Static header/footer/menus/etc via PHP includes

Documentation/FAQ
- Each section/function has its own page

PHP/MySQL
- Anonymous user notes for the documentation (with optional email
address field)...no login required
- Perhaps a rating system that will also serve to auto hide comments
(sort of a distributed moderation)

An adaptation of PHP.net's system would work beautifully for Exim's purpose.

Sam