Re: LinuxGames website contents

[Christian Reiniger <warewolf@mayn.de>]

Magnus Norddahl wrote:

>(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

Well, as I said in another post, we have to get that site up *now*. It has
to have a good look&feel, but the fine tuning has to be delayed.

>suggestion to the website contents and structure are as follows:
>
>Main

  - About this site
	I already wrote a first version of this one, but it will have to be
	(1) modified to better fit this site structure
	(2) moved to its own page
	I'll care about that.

>  - Game SDK's available

It's important to place some note about the relationship of these levels
here (e.g. SDL is on top of dx and/or GGI and/or X11, PPlay is on top of
GGI or dx etc). I'll write that.

>     - Platform dependent sdk's (dx, svgalib, ggi, x11, etc.)

This part isn't very urgent. But I'll ask the GGI ppl for a short overview
anyways. Who can contribute on the other sdks?

>     - Lowlevel platform independent sdk's (sdl and others)

I'll tell Sam Lantiga (the SDL author (or are you subscribed to this list,
Sam?)). Perhaps MGL will also fit in this category. I'll ask Stephane.

>     - Higherlevel platform independent sdk's (clanlib, pplay)

This page should also contain an explanation about the planned toolkit
modularity and interoperability. I can write that.

The PPlay overview is available, I'll only have to make it a bit shorter.
Overviews of several PPlay parts (2D, GUI, File access and perhaps Network)
exist, too. Christof, can you please write some lines about PenguinInput?

>  - 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.

In other words: comparing the SDKs. It's not about providing in-depth
documentation because that's what the SDK's homepages are for.

This will be more or less a blank page at the beginning. 

>  - 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

Good. I don't think we should list all projects' mailing list - that's the
duty of the projects' homepages. But an explanation of the purpose of the
linuxgames mailing list and some notes about what questions should be
posted to it is important. I'll prepare that.

The "mailing list and discussions" part should perhaps also contain some
general "editorial" section, covering things like "my first time with
ClanLib" etc - texts submitted by game developers etc, uncensored, free for
discussion on the mailing list. This could also include links to related
editorials/articles on other sites.

>     - 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.

This should be a toplevel part. Specification and discussion of
compatibility "standards" including description of common code etc.

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

Hmm, we'll have to decide to what extend we'll do that - every Linux game
uses one of SVGALib, X11 and GGI. But that's anyway a not so pressing part.
Perhaps we can also cooperate with the Linux Game Tome on that.

>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.

But we'll need some "related sites" nevertheless IMHO. But we'll see.

>"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

Hmm, yes, especially the "SDK comparison" part already covers this. Ok.

>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).

Of course. We should clearly state that we (or most of us) focus on Linux,
but (almost) all SDKs listed are also available (and maintained) for other
platforms.

Cu
	Christian
--

God loves Black & White, but i prefer Jim Beam.