Re: LinuxGames website contents

[Magnus Norddahl <mbn@dark.x.dtu.dk>]

Quoting Christian Reiniger (warewolf@mayn.de):

> (1) I hate frames because they're not nice to browse with lynx
> (2) I love frames because they make big sites much more controllable

I personally always hate frames when used as a surfbar to the left. They
just indicate two things:

(1) Bad site structure. If you need to use the surfbar more than once when
visiting the site, something's wrong with the links on the main frame.

(2) 9 out of 10 rookies use a frame to the left. It like everybody adds a
frame there before anything else. Some sites may have a design, where a
surfbar to the left fits in, but usually it's only there because it was
easier to make a surfbar than to think about the _real_ site. DirectX's site
(among lots of others) is a good example. They have a surfbar to the left, a
surfbar at the top, and links on the main frame. They just end up confusing
people...


No more talk about frames! Let's talk about the _REAL_ website. My
suggestion to the website contents and structure are as follows:

Main
  - Game SDK's available
     - Platform dependent sdk's (dx, svgalib, ggi, x11, etc.)
     - Lowlevel platform independent sdk's (sdl and others)
     - Higherlevel platform independent sdk's (clanlib, pplay)

  - Using several Game SDK's at once
     - Info helping game developers to combine the different game sdk's
       available to specialize the sdk's for their needs.
       In general explain when to use ClanLib's 2D surfaces - and when to
       use sdl's.
       Advantages and disadvantages to PPlay's network model. Help the
       developer to choose.
  
  - Mailinglists and discussions
     - Explain what mailinglist there exists - and explain their different
       purposes. This avoid people subscribing eg. to the ClanLib mailing
       list, when they want to talk about combining ClanLib with PPlay. Or
       help people avoid asking ClanLib specific questions on the Meta
       mailing list.
     - Documents explaining why the sdk's communicate together like they do.
       Such as should we use COM or CORBA. Things that we general agree on
       should be written here to discussing the same thing again and again.

  - List of games using one or more of the game sdk's offered here.


I don't think we should have a "Links" section. The entire site is a kind of
"advanced link page" - helping people follow the correct links to game sdk
sites, mailinglists and such.

Also, I dislike the idea about having a FAQ which answers questions like
"How do I write a game like Quake?" or "Which libraries are best if I want to
write a game like Quake?". Such questions should already be answered in the
sections listed above. If a person cannot figure out himself which sdk's to
use, I don't think the guy could make a Quake game anyway.

One last thing. It is very important that the Meta site doesn't favorite any
particular sdk or sdks. The site should only explain the different approaces
used, different philophsy and goals. It is up to the invidual game developer
to choose the correct sdk's for his use. If the site starts stating things
like "Linux is better than Windows" or "DirectX is crap" or other
non-objective points of view, people will think we are a bunch of morrons
controlling this meta site. (note: I'm not saying anyone have done so yet -
just mentioning it to make sure we agree).

--
Magnus Norddahl
ClanLib developer
http://clanlib.org