Hi all,

Now, let's talk about the content and its structure. From the first email, I have shared some references, maybe we could go from there.

Some things need to be considered are:
- what contents we're gonna provide to the visitors?
- which contents need to be displayed on the main page?
- is the content source already available?
- who's gonna collect and resume the content from various sources (wiki, docs, forum thread, etc)?
- ... anything else? ...

Please share your ideas and opinions, then get settle on one, and let's do the work.

Several things which should be easily visible/accessible to anyone who comes for the first time, or wants to get started with Lazarus:

"What is it?" - explaining in short what is Lazarus, LCL, FPC, Lazarus-CCR "How does it look like?" - screenshots of Lazarus on different platforms, different Lazarus windows/dialogs, examples of applications made with Lazarus
"Tell me more!" - up-to-date (as much as possible) list of Lazarus features "Why should I use it?" - explaining why is Lazarus so great tool, comparison to Delphi, comparison to other IDE tools, list of features which were available in Lazarus before Delphi (Graeme started this, if I remember correctly)
"Who is using it?" - list of projects/applications made using Lazarus "How do I get/install it?" - with information and link to download/install instructions
"How do I use it?" - basic tutorial for Hello World "Where can I get help?" - this page can list help sources (forum, Wiki, mailing lists, irc, whatever there is) with direct links helpful wiki pages

There should probably be a section with these information on the first page. The first page should primarily be for those who come for the first time - to attract them, and show them what Lazarus really is.

For users which already tried Lazarus, these informations are useful:

"I have a problem! What now?" - instructions how to search wiki, forum, mailing list, how to report issue to bug tracker "What I already have?" - list of packages (with explanation) which come with Lazarus
"Where can I find ...?" - list of components (CCR), links to external useful stuff
"How can I help?" - for new possible contributor/developer/whatever...

These two sections should be clearly separated. In addition to them, there should probably be some section about FPC (which should contain links to important products connected to FPC).

There should, of course, be much more, but these are just some preliminary thoughts.

@Aleksa

I almost completely agree.

There should probably be a section with these information on the first page. The first page should primarily be for those who come for the first time - to attract them, and show them what Lazarus really is.

Exactly. This is important and could be done in reasonable time. This is much more important than changing website technology imho.

Only thing I do not agree:
I think we should not compare Lazarus with Delphi and other tools. It's a little cheap / bad taste.

Theo

I think it's important to have some as-objective-as-possible comparison for people who used and liked Delphi (like most of us are, I believe), and are now learning about Lazarus. It's inevitable that they'll compare Lazarus to Delphi, so let's be one step in front of them. It's not meant to have tone "Lazarus is better than Delphi", but to give an overview of features present in both products, as well as important differences.

So, on second thought, I agree it shouldn't go into "Why should I use it?" (that's where all those "big words" should be used like "Fully UTF8 compatible - Supports all major widgetsets: GTK1, GTK2, QT, ....." and alike), but into separate section.

In so far it's essential to mention the *differences*, where Lazarus works and has to be used differently from Delphi. Now that Delphi uses Unicode strings, it's important to explain the Lazarus string types and encodings. How to store Unicode, what's the purpose of UTF8ToAnsi, UTF8ToSys etc.

A newbie cannot know which are Lazarus and which are FPC issues, so *both* should be covered in *one* place (links may go into existing FPC pages, of course).

DoDi

I agree on that, and you know, it is already possible. Start writing articles.

Marc

Hi,

Just thought I would mention that static pages is probably easier than any CMS. Applying relatively simple CSS can make it look beautiful without the need for fancy HTML.

To help with maintaining the website, we have done the following in the tiOPF project. The HTML content is actually in the SubVersion repository: A sub project, separate from the tiOPF source code. That way if anybody spots an error or outdated information, they can simply modify it locally, and submit a patch.

tiOPF also has a script that runs every 30 minutes. It knows the last used revision used on the web server. If there are updates in the repository, it checks-out the new revision and automatically publishes the new changes to the website. So no need to manually update the website.

Something like this could easily apply to Lazarus too, and it is relatively little effort to setup. Also designing the website so that in doesn't use serverside includes etc makes it easier for users to checkout the website from the repository and simply use a web browser to view the content locally (no webserver installation required) and make appropriate changes and review before submitting a website patch.

Regards,
- Graeme -

That sounds like a good idea. But before we're talking about the application, let's talk about the *real* contents first. As you might already saw at my proposal given at the previous email, I propose lots of new contents on the new web site, see the footer sections. Perhaps the required contents are already available, but I believe they are separated all over the docs, wiki, forum, etc. We need to gather them and display them in neat structured shape so everybody comes to the website could find whatever they need in no time. So, as I asked previously, who's gonna collect and structure all those contents? ;)