Hi all,

I've been playing to build some more user-friendly download page with installation instructions.

Before I continue, I would like to know whay you guys find of the basic idea:

http://www.lazarussupport.com/tmp/index.psp/Compiler?section2=DownloadWizard

Note: rest of the site doesn't work with this url. It's only to show the download-page. Clicking next a few times with the default options will work. If you select something else strange things might happen...

Joost.

Nice idea!
However I would suggest to reduce it to two steps, with the first one being categorized (Lazarus, Documentation, ...) and each of them having radio boxes (Windows, Linux, Mac .... or for the docs CHM, HTML, PDF, etc.).
Basically somewhat like SourceForge, just less generic :D

Best Regards,
Andreas.

2010/11/10 Joost van der Sluis :

I ignored the instructions and clicked on the title bar of each option and expected it to go to the next page. I expected the triangle to expand and collapse the option.

Vincent

Hmm... maybe that's the solution. I asked here because the interface isn't really intuitive. But at the same time radio-buttons can not hold enough text.

This may be a good idea.

Joost

I don't think it's doable in two steps. For example: Linux has several distributions. And there's the 32/64 bit step.

If you squeeze it into two steps, there are too much options. Or in the end, you got a page which has to contain information for too much different setups.

Basically somewhat like SourceForge, just less generic :D

This system is more generic then SourceForge's. ;)

Joost.

Nice, very...

- Far to many steps
- selection/next button not intuitive

My suggestions

- In order to make the headers a clear choice of selection, add a checkbox to each header. if the user selects it, it also opens the selected explanation.
As to clicking the header elsewhere:
- could select the checkbox
- could allow peak preview, not moving the selection
- could select the checkbox, if none yet set, otherwhise peak preview

- for the button
have a button in each explanation.
Then you do not need checkboxes..., but something like a more/select button on each header, to open the explanation.

- for the pages.
nested headers? if you select linux, then there could be several headers inside.

---
The ideas are just what came to mind, not sure which one will work best or at all, or not at all...

Martin

Hello Lazarus-List,

Wednesday, November 10, 2010, 5:37:25 PM, you wrote:

JvdS> I've been playing to build some more user-friendly download page with JvdS> installation instructions.
JvdS> Before I continue, I would like to know whay you guys find of the basic JvdS> idea:
JvdS> http://www.lazarussupport.com/tmp/index.psp/Compiler?section2=DownloadWizard JvdS> Note: rest of the site doesn't work with this url. It's only to show the JvdS> download-page. Clicking next a few times with the default options will JvdS> work. If you select something else strange things might happen...

If you do not have javascript everything looks as working, but nothing works. A warning about Javascript disabled is a must.

How about this:

http://www.lazarussupport.com/tmp/index.psp/Compiler?section2=DownloadWizard

Joost.

My personal opinion: overall - good. But those expandable bars are not intuitive. Maybe it could be something like: "v Install Lazarus and Free Pascal, select this >"
where "v Install Lazarus and Free Pascal" part expands information block and " select this >" part selects it.

What is more, BACK button in my browser does not work (Firefox 3,6)! So there is no way to go back to select another option.

Regards
?ilvinas Ledas

Much better. The trouble with the earlier one was that while the wizard concept is familiar, its actually the standard dialog that people recognize, not the concept.

I was confused by the earlier dialogue too, and it took me half a minute to realize it was a wizard like concept.

Joost van der Sluis wrote

How about this: http://www.lazarussupport.com/tmp/index.psp/Compiler?section2=DownloadWizard

Much better! I like it.

Does this page install Lazarus?

http://www.lazarussupport.com/tmp/index.psp/Lazarus?section2=Download&section3=i386_win32

I'm asking because the download link leads to
ftp://ftp.freepascal.org/pub/fpc/dist/2.4.0/i386-win32/fpc-2.4.0.i386-win32.exe

In the info part at the bottom of this page you might mention that Lazarus 0.9.28.2 comes with an older FPC compiler, not the one mwntioned immediately to the left...

When clicking over to the Windows install screen it mentions the download file name as fpc-2.4.0.i386-win32.exe but I believe it should say lazarus something or other, plus showing the real fpc version one gets from the official latest stable download.

I installed only a few weeks back from the official SF download page http://sourceforge.net/projects/lazarus/files/ and received fpc version 2.2.4 rather than 2.4.0 :-(

And now I don't know how to change this so I get the latest stable (I am a windows user and do not usually compile my tools...).

[OT]
That's because there never was an official release of Lazarus with 2.4.0. That will happen now that 2.4.2 is released, though.

In the meantime you can simply install FPC 2.4.2 available through http://www.freepascal.org/download.var . You then just need to change the compiler and source paths in "Environment -> Settings -> General" (or similar, I'm using the German version) and then recompile the IDE and LCL (in short: everything :) ) by using "Tools -> Build Lazarus" or "Tools -> Configure "Build Lazarus"".

If you need more help you are free to ask, of course :) [/OT]

Regards,
Sven

No, sorry, it's a mockup. You will see even stranger results if you click on some of the other links.

Joost.

It's online now, try it:

http://www.lazarussupport.com/lazarus/GetLazarus

Later more options (targets,versions) can be added.

Joost.