Talk:Main Page

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Revision as of 19:05, 9 July 2007 by NicolasVervelle (talk | contribs) (Main page and section templates: idea)
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This is the Discussion page of the Main Page. Please, feel free to add your own remarks and contributions below, under the horizontal line.


Jmol wiki structure

Ok, so I started not so much restructuring, but more trying to add structure. Who would have thought that the information of one "little" ;) program is so difficult to structure. Just shifting around the information that is already there seems to do the trick quite nicely.

I've added some extra templates and sections, and made sure that the "main" templates are the most prominent ones (i.e. biggest box), and put in a logical order (I hope). So first you download it, then install, then you run it, then you need the documentation. I think that this is the most used order in any kind of software documentation.

There is still information missing on installing the applet for a web page. I read on the mailing list that the jar files are now separable for smaller download size, this is all useful info to put in a special page. I myself never did used jmol online, so I didn't make a wikipage for this (yet). -- Pimpim 18:01, 30 May 2007 (CEST)


Good work, Pimpim. A new look with fresh eyes is always helpful. I think that "Java Web Start" is probably more a "Running Jmol" subsection than a "Development" one. I can probably find some time to write something about "installing" the applet for a web page, as that's my main way to use Jmol. --AngelHerraez 21:57, 3 June 2007 (CEST)

Mailing lists

the sourceforge mail list websites don't work for me, I always end up with 'internal server error' or 'no forum'. Therefore I added links to some the mail-archive.com mailing list mirror which seems reasonable enough and not overloaded with advertisements. -- Pimpim 19:11, 6 June 2007 (CEST)

New randomly-named user edits

What's up with those? I checked the diffs and they are not so much spam, as more random vandalism (deleting the last bit of a page in the middle of a url) or changing "ctrl + del" into "ctrl del". Actually this is all pretty silly, what is happening there? -- Pimpim 10:48, 8 June 2007 (CEST)

Java Web Start

I see this more as a way to deliver Jmol than to install it, so I vote for putting it under "Running Jmol", not "Installing Jmol". And it's the app, not the applet. (I'm no expert at this technology, though) -- AngelHerraez 18:48, 27 June 2007 (CEST)

Just a guess, since an applet runs in a container where the gui is handled by the program it runs in, installing the app on a web server makes it an applet as soon as it is opened in the web browser of the user :) I think that the difference between app and applet will wash away in time anyway, even though doing Molecular Dynamics inside a web browser might remain impractical for the following few years at least ;)
Also, on reconsideration I think that the separation between installing and running a program might be artificial, maybe just make one big box? If we want to keep the division, than what should happen with the Jmol Applet page, or these fundamentally different? Since I actually use Jmol as a stand-alone app only, I would be happy if someone more knowledgeable than me would organize the info on the web-based stuff. -- Pimpim 10:31, 28 June 2007 (CEST)
Ok, so I think I understand what Java Web Start does now. It runs the application as an external program, though initiated by the web browser. Not in a container? Still I think the description on the wiki page here about it is more about installing it, since it mentions all the things that have to be done only once, at the moment of install :) Running the Java Web start application is just a matter of clicking the link. -- Pimpim 12:31, 28 June 2007 (CEST)

Main page and section templates

Do we really need these two templates to be separate entities? The content needs to be the same, so I end up needing to write everything twice, which is not what templates are for :) Problem is that maybe they need special layout properties (in the sections you want them top right, on the main page they need to fit in the table. Is there a way to separate layout from content in the wiki? -- Pimpim 11:49, 9 July 2007 (CEST)

I think you can use the section templates in the Main page simply by putting them inside div in the Main page. I haven't tried it but it should work --NicolasVervelle 21:05, 9 July 2007 (CEST)