Suggestions for improving the screenshots section of the webpage
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Aaron Meurer
Jun 20, 2012, 4:01:29 AM6/20/12
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Hello everyone.
I've been thinking about improving our "screenshots" section of the
webpage (http://sympy.org/en/screenshots.html). Currently, it has
just one simple example that hardly shows the power of SymPy. I'd
love to hear suggestions on how we could improve it. In particular,
- I think we should use actual "screenshots". The reason is that for
99% of people, the Unicode pretty-printing, which I would like to use
for most of the examples, will not look good in the browser in plain
text. This is due to font substitution that replaces Unicode
characters with ones of different widths, making different lines in
the output appear shifted. You've probably all noticed this in pages
in our docs that use Unicode pretty printing, such as
http://docs.sympy.org/0.7.1/modules/polys/wester.html. Unless someone
knows how to force characters to align exactly in the browser like
they do in a terminal, I think that screenshots of an actual terminal
screen will be the best bet. The downside of course is that the
examples won't be copyable, though we could also provide plain text
for that.
- What would be the best terminal color configuration to use for the
screenshots?
- Any suggestions on what to show are welcome. I was going to use
https://github.com/sympy/sympy/wiki/Quick-examples as a start. For
now we'll have to stick to examples that work in the released version,
until we can get 0.7.2 out.
- Is there a better name than "screenshots" that we can use. I
suppose if we are going to show actual screen shots, it will be OK,
but right now it seems misplaced.
Aaron Meurer
I've been thinking about improving our "screenshots" section of the
webpage (http://sympy.org/en/screenshots.html). Currently, it has
just one simple example that hardly shows the power of SymPy. I'd
love to hear suggestions on how we could improve it. In particular,
- I think we should use actual "screenshots". The reason is that for
99% of people, the Unicode pretty-printing, which I would like to use
for most of the examples, will not look good in the browser in plain
text. This is due to font substitution that replaces Unicode
characters with ones of different widths, making different lines in
the output appear shifted. You've probably all noticed this in pages
in our docs that use Unicode pretty printing, such as
http://docs.sympy.org/0.7.1/modules/polys/wester.html. Unless someone
knows how to force characters to align exactly in the browser like
they do in a terminal, I think that screenshots of an actual terminal
screen will be the best bet. The downside of course is that the
examples won't be copyable, though we could also provide plain text
for that.
- What would be the best terminal color configuration to use for the
screenshots?
- Any suggestions on what to show are welcome. I was going to use
https://github.com/sympy/sympy/wiki/Quick-examples as a start. For
now we'll have to stick to examples that work in the released version,
until we can get 0.7.2 out.
- Is there a better name than "screenshots" that we can use. I
suppose if we are going to show actual screen shots, it will be OK,
but right now it seems misplaced.
Aaron Meurer
Sergiu Ivanov
Jun 20, 2012, 10:25:42 AM6/20/12
to sy...@googlegroups.com
Hello,
On Wed, Jun 20, 2012 at 11:01 AM, Aaron Meurer <asme...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I've been thinking about improving our "screenshots" section of the
> webpage (http://sympy.org/en/screenshots.html). Currently, it has
> just one simple example that hardly shows the power of SymPy. I'd
> love to hear suggestions on how we could improve it. In particular,
Besides what you have already mentioned, I guess screenshots of SymPy
showing some plots would be totally welcome.
> - I think we should use actual "screenshots". The reason is that for
> 99% of people, the Unicode pretty-printing, which I would like to use
> for most of the examples, will not look good in the browser in plain
> text. This is due to font substitution that replaces Unicode
> characters with ones of different widths, making different lines in
> the output appear shifted. You've probably all noticed this in pages
> in our docs that use Unicode pretty printing, such as
> http://docs.sympy.org/0.7.1/modules/polys/wester.html. Unless someone
> knows how to force characters to align exactly in the browser like
> they do in a terminal, I think that screenshots of an actual terminal
> screen will be the best bet. The downside of course is that the
> examples won't be copyable, though we could also provide plain text
> for that.
I think using actual screenshots is a good idea.
> - What would be the best terminal color configuration to use for the
> screenshots?
I'd vote for black text on white background, because that will fit
naturally into the web page.
> - Any suggestions on what to show are welcome. I was going to use
> https://github.com/sympy/sympy/wiki/Quick-examples as a start. For
> now we'll have to stick to examples that work in the released version,
> until we can get 0.7.2 out.
I think that's a very nice list of examples, but I'd like to see some
plotting as well.
Sergiu
On Wed, Jun 20, 2012 at 11:01 AM, Aaron Meurer <asme...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I've been thinking about improving our "screenshots" section of the
> webpage (http://sympy.org/en/screenshots.html). Currently, it has
> just one simple example that hardly shows the power of SymPy. I'd
> love to hear suggestions on how we could improve it. In particular,
showing some plots would be totally welcome.
> - I think we should use actual "screenshots". The reason is that for
> 99% of people, the Unicode pretty-printing, which I would like to use
> for most of the examples, will not look good in the browser in plain
> text. This is due to font substitution that replaces Unicode
> characters with ones of different widths, making different lines in
> the output appear shifted. You've probably all noticed this in pages
> in our docs that use Unicode pretty printing, such as
> http://docs.sympy.org/0.7.1/modules/polys/wester.html. Unless someone
> knows how to force characters to align exactly in the browser like
> they do in a terminal, I think that screenshots of an actual terminal
> screen will be the best bet. The downside of course is that the
> examples won't be copyable, though we could also provide plain text
> for that.
> - What would be the best terminal color configuration to use for the
> screenshots?
naturally into the web page.
> - Any suggestions on what to show are welcome. I was going to use
> https://github.com/sympy/sympy/wiki/Quick-examples as a start. For
> now we'll have to stick to examples that work in the released version,
> until we can get 0.7.2 out.
plotting as well.
Sergiu
Aaron Meurer
Jun 20, 2012, 5:16:05 PM6/20/12
to sy...@googlegroups.com
which will contain the new plotting module. Otherwise, I totally
agree with you.
Aaron Meurer
krastano...@gmail.com
Jun 20, 2012, 5:21:43 PM6/20/12
to sy...@googlegroups.com
Concerning aesthetics I like the image on the homepage of ipython
where they have the terminal, qt-console and the notebook side by
side. It may be entertaining to have something like that showcasing
the different printing capabilities for instance.
Concerning functionality, I do not have anything to add to what you
have already said.
where they have the terminal, qt-console and the notebook side by
side. It may be entertaining to have something like that showcasing
the different printing capabilities for instance.
Concerning functionality, I do not have anything to add to what you
have already said.
Vinzent Steinberg
Jun 25, 2012, 2:06:32 PM6/25/12
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Am Mittwoch, 20. Juni 2012 10:01:29 UTC+2 schrieb Aaron Meurer:[...]
- Is there a better name than "screenshots" that we can use. I
suppose if we are going to show actual screen shots, it will be OK,
but right now it seems misplaced.
What about "showcase"?I like "screenshots" however, because this is what such a section is usually called on the website of a software project.Vinzent
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