Re: [DOCS] Doc fixes and improvements

From: Bruce Momjian <bruce(at)momjian(dot)us>
To: Kevin Grittner <Kevin(dot)Grittner(at)wicourts(dot)gov>
Cc: Peter Eisentraut <peter_e(at)gmx(dot)net>, Thom Brown <thom(at)linux(dot)com>, Magnus Hagander <magnus(at)hagander(dot)net>, PostgreSQL www <pgsql-www(at)postgresql(dot)org>, Tom Lane <tgl(at)sss(dot)pgh(dot)pa(dot)us>
Subject: Re: [DOCS] Doc fixes and improvements
Date: 2010-09-13 21:32:32
Message-ID: 201009132132.o8DLWWj04402@momjian.us
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Kevin Grittner wrote:
> Peter Eisentraut <peter_e(at)gmx(dot)net> wrote:
>
> > There are just too many things going on. Reduce the number of
> > colors, reduce the number of different border designs (round, not
> > round), make the borders less busy (remove the line), remove the
> > shadows, reduce the number of different levels of indentation.
>
> Personally, I would be disappointed if we backed off from these
> changes much. The current docs look like something I would have
> seen coming off the bidirectional print-head of a Teletype(R)
> machine a few decades ago. I've gone back and forth between that

Agreed.

> and Thom's latest draft trying to pick out useful information on
> various pages, and for me the visual cues help considerably in
> finding what I want. On top of that, switching to the new look is a
> refreshing experience each time; when I switch back to our current
> docs, I can actually feel my eyes tighten up as they prepare to pick
> out content from a mass of uniform text.
>
> I know people process visual information differently, but I really
> have a hard time seeing anything offensive about where Thom has
> taken it, and that was based on a lot of feedback from several
> different people.

Agreed.

FYI, everyone should be looking at the same version:

http://pgweb.darkixion.com:8081/docs/8.4/static/sql-syntax-lexical.html

If we make these changes, there is nothing in stone preventing us from
tweaking it later, but I think there is general agreement that the new
format is an improvement. We have to accept we will never make everyone
happy.

The only constructive suggestion I can make to perhaps make more people
happy would be to go with only vertical lines to highlight the code
blocks, e.g. instead of:

+-------------+
| text |
+-------------+

we do

| text |

but I am not sure if I even would prefer that.

FYI, I would like to see this rolled into our production web server in
the next few days so it is ready for the 9.0 release.

--
Bruce Momjian <bruce(at)momjian(dot)us> http://momjian.us
EnterpriseDB http://enterprisedb.com

+ It's impossible for everything to be true. +

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