mc-stan

[Andrew Gelman]

Hi all. I went to the mc-stan page and have some quick comments.

1. Can we omit the Download Latest section? The latest versions will always be in the Quick Start sections so I don't see the need for a separate Download Latest section. Instead, we can simply change Getting Started to Getting Started with the Latest Version

2. We also need a link to the page of translated Bugs models. This will be important!

3. Also, should we have a link to the Google Code page. Something like: For Developers.

A

[Bob Carpenter]

Did you look at the screen shot Malecki created?

The questions/comments are related.

On 8/26/12 2:07 PM, Andrew Gelman wrote:
> Hi all. I went to the mc-stan page and have some quick comments.
>
> 1. Can we omit the Download Latest section? The latest versions will always be in the Quick Start sections so I don't see the need for a separate Download Latest section. Instead, we can simply change Getting Started to Getting Started with the Latest Version

I want some link to the downloads. Lots of people
will show up at the site just to get the latest
version and I don't want them to have to guess which
link it's behind.

This is something that a standard nav layout might
help, because then download latest would be a nav
link, not a big link in the middle of the others.

But I was pretty sure you didn't want an arrangement
like that.

> 2. We also need a link to the page of translated Bugs models. This will be important!

As soon as we have such a page or pages, I'll link
to it. Do you think I should link to this
in the interim:

http://code.google.com/p/stan/source/browse/#git%2Fsrc%2Fmodels%2Fbugs_examples

This is something where styling them with syntax
highlighting would be nice to have!

This is another thing where we'll probably wind
up having lots of example models, and BUGS will
only be one set.

> 3. Also, should we have a link to the Google Code page. Something like: For Developers.

Good point. Don't know how I missed that.

I'm working on the quick start instructions. It's hard
to figure out how low down to pitch them. I'm envisioning
Andrew as a typical consumer -- someone who's not used to
running from the command line. But then maybe that's wrong
for the command-line quickstart, since Andrew would use the
R version.

- Bob

[Marcus Brubaker]

On Sun, Aug 26, 2012 at 6:13 PM, Bob Carpenter <ca...@alias-i.com> wrote:
> Did you look at the screen shot Malecki created?
>
> The questions/comments are related.
>
> On 8/26/12 2:07 PM, Andrew Gelman wrote:
>>
>> Hi all. I went to the mc-stan page and have some quick comments.
>>
>> 1. Can we omit the Download Latest section? The latest versions will
>> always be in the Quick Start sections so I don't see the need for a separate
>> Download Latest section. Instead, we can simply change Getting Started to
>> Getting Started with the Latest Version
>
>
> I want some link to the downloads. Lots of people
> will show up at the site just to get the latest
> version and I don't want them to have to guess which
> link it's behind.

I agree. A lot of people will go and just want to download right
away. Having to navigate through a getting started page is
unintuitive and relatively tedious to me.

> I'm working on the quick start instructions. It's hard
> to figure out how low down to pitch them. I'm envisioning
> Andrew as a typical consumer -- someone who's not used to
> running from the command line. But then maybe that's wrong
> for the command-line quickstart, since Andrew would use the
> R version.

I'd write the quickstart assuming that someone was just using the
commandline. There should be a separate quickstart for the
R/Python/Matlab/etc versions.

Cheers,
Marcus

[Andrew Gelman]

0. No, I didn't see Malecki's screenshot, I'm just looking at mc-stan.org.

1. What if we renamed the Getting Started section to be Getting Started / Latest Downloads? Then we don't need the Latest Downloads link.

2. Yes, that link is fine with me.

thx
a

> --
>

[Bob Carpenter]

On 8/26/12 8:25 PM, Andrew Gelman wrote:

> 1. What if we renamed the Getting Started section to be Getting Started / Latest Downloads? Then we don't need the
Latest Downloads link.

How about we leave it? If it were up to me,
it'd be at the top!

You only get started once, but making it easy
is very important to new users.

But you update the software over time, so that's
very important to ongoing users.

> 2. Yes, that link is fine with me.

OK, I added it.

> 0. No, I didn't see Malecki's screenshot, I'm just looking at mc-stan.org.

He sent it to the list, so I'll resend just to you.

It's relevant, because the usual place to put some
of the stuff we're talking about in 1 and 2 would
be in a nav bar or nav header (I'm not a huge fan
of nav footers). That was how I originally conceived
it, anyway.

It's in the simple format it's in now because that's
what I (Bob) thought you (Andrew) wanted.

So maybe we can revisit the issue again at least
briefly on Tuesday.

It's not holding us up in releasing. We can change
the web site independently of the software release.

- Bob

[Ben Goodrich]

On Sunday, August 26, 2012 11:02:27 PM UTC-4, Bob Carpenter wrote:

On 8/26/12 8:25 PM, Andrew Gelman wrote:

 > 1.  What if we renamed the Getting Started section to be Getting Started / Latest Downloads?  Then we don't need the
Latest Downloads link.

How about we leave it?  If it were up to me,
it'd be at the top!

I am also in favor of a Downloads section. But I also think that we should have stan_latest.tar.gz that redirects to whatever version of stan is actually the latest. That way, all the links can be live and we don't have to tell people to worry about the major number, the minor number, and the minor, minor number. CRAN does the same thing

http://cran.r-project.org/src/base-prerelease/

Ben

[Andrew Gelman]

Here's my concern: the user (such as me) who goes to Getting Started and follows the instructions and then wonders: "Hey, do I also need to download the Latest Downloads too?"

Malecki's page looks fine to me. But I'd like to make it clear that the way for a new user (or even a new developer, at first) to proceed is to follow the Getting Started instructions, without having to worry about the Download.

So, in the Malecki page, I think it's necessary to slightly redesign so that Getting Started is special rather than merely items 2,3,4 on a small-print list. Perhaps, for example, Getting Started could be the permanently top item on the bloglike space on the left side of the webpage, and this item would include links to Getting Started with Stan from R, Getting Started with Stan from the Command Line, and Getting Started with Stan Using C++ (I don't actually understand the difference between these last two, but maybe I don't need to).

A

> --
>