Re: Ok, http://gperiodic.seul.org exists

[Robert Hopcroft <hopcroft@uswest.net>]

Anyway here are my comments on Malonowa's comments. Again I'm not knowledgeable
enough on HTML to provide any meaningful discussion. Perhaps somebody else can.

In http://www.seul.org/archives/seul/edu/Jun-1999/msg00150.html Malonowa  wrote:

> What does the program do exactly?

I just took a look at 'What is GPeriodic?' on the GPeriodic home page and I noticed
a problem. "originally written for Linux", asks the question, "What is it now
written for ???". Also current(ly) listed. I believe this answers the above comment.
However if anyone sees things differently please say so because that's how things
get really polished.

> What curriculum targets/criteria does it meet?

This is a good question. Kyle, I would like to see you evolve GPeriodic toward a
useful adjunct for a highschool chemistry course. Currently, I would consider it as
being along the lines of an entry for an interactive encyclopedia. Perhaps a
sentence could be added to 'What is GPeriodic?' something like, "This program is
useful for students being introduced to the chemical elements".

> What's the point in a screenshot of the about box!?

This is my feeling too.

> Try to avoid HTML 4 - not everyone has browsers that can cope with it V3.2 is
> still really the standard.
> Liven it with a bit of Javascript - maybe.
> Don't you have any nice 3D pictures of molecules? A picture tells a thousand
> words.

This would definitely be nice, although, I'm always concerned about web pages
loading fast.

> Divide the page into Framesets and then the menu and logo won't reload every time
> you choose something.

> Perhaps you could find a more interesting name for the program as well. That's
> personal though - I hate seeing G this G that, K this, K that everywhere - where's

> everyone's imagination?

When I first saw the name GPeriodic my first thought was that it was part of the
GNOME project.

> When you have to talk about a "product" try to think in terms of features and
> benefits and keep the text to a minimum.

Features I think is now covered. Benefits might be, "A quick reference to the
chemical elements and their properties".
Anyway there are my comments.

Bob