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

[Robert Hopcroft <hopcroft@uswest.net>]

Just to clean up loose ends.

> Is there anything I can do to help automate the process of packaging the
> software?  What I mean is -- every time the software changes, a new package
> would need to be built, right?  Is there anything I can do/write/chagne
> in the source tree that will help automate the process? (or completely
> automate the process?)

I would suggest contacting Jim directly and asking him.


> Since there'll be a .deb of gperiodic, does that mean it will/might become
> part of the debian distribution?

That's how I would read it. Also Project Independence uses .rpm. Maybe they would
be interseted. Anyone know?

> I'm interested to know if it looks good on your systems, and what any
> of you will have to say about the pages...

On the Screenshots page. I would be consistent. The order of About and Main for
French is reversed from the English and Spanish. I clicked About expecting Main
to come up. Personally I would just have Main as that's what I really want to
see. About really doesn't do anything. I think showing what one gets when
clicking on an element would be better. If you want people to see the information
contained in the About screenshot, I would put it on the Screenshot web page.
Even if you leave it Main and About, I would list the languages at the top saying
something like, "Pick a language?". Then below have just a single instance of
Main and About. I think this would be cleaner especially when you get many
languages.

> As far as Chinese, and any other pictograph/icon based languages go, they
> probably would be a problem.  What is the standard way to handle the language
> abstraction that accounts for the differences between these languages, and
> ones such as english/french/etc?

> If there is a way to handle this programmaticly within code, I will
> look at adding it to gperiodic -- I've started looking at gnu gettext
> (see http://www.gnu.org for more info about gettext), but I'm not yet
> sure how to use it, or weather or not it supports these kinds of languages.

It is my understanding that gettext is the way to do it. You might want to talk
to Steve Tonnesen (tonnesen@cmsd.bc.ca). For example see
http://www.seul.org/archives/seul/edu/Jun-1999/msg00105.html.

>> O yes, also in the June 29 news (bottom-most), you might consider making
>> such things as 'this space', 'CVS archive', and 'ftp archive' into links
>> so people can follow them more easily. (Who knows, maybe somewhere in
>> there you'll link to seul-edu and/or the seul frontpage. :) Probably a more
>> permanent link to at least seul-edu would be useful, so people know you're
>> part of the seul-edu group.

> Done.  I had a link to SEUL on the about page -- I just added one for
> seul-edu.  Did you want this on the main page also?  Or is the link on
> the about page enough?

I would suggest taking a look at the Dr Geo project
http://www.seul.org/edu/projects.html as it is also hosted on the seul site. I
think it might give you some ideas. Also consider having GPeriodic listed on the
projects page so that anyone landing there would see it.

>> Speaking of which, I will do an announce of gperiodic on seul-announce
>> soon if you like. This is a list of around 740 people currently, who are
>> interested in hearing about this sort of thing. If you could point me at
>> a blurb, potentially including a list of things you'd like help on, that
>> would be very useful.
>> After that, I'll link to you from the seul frontpage, so more people will
>> see the site.

> Announcing it is fine with me.  Things I'd like to help on?  I'm not sure if
> I understand.

I think what Roger was referring to, "Is there any part of GPeriodic that you
would like people to help on?". The thought that just crossed my mind is to ask
if there are any teachers who would give it a try in their classroom.
Just another thought, Doug, how do we get GPeriodic, MathMol and the apps Kyle
pointed out onto the Software List.
Finally, I haven't had time to think about the issues that Malonowa raised. I'm
not familiar enough with HTML to be of help there, however I will see what I can
come up with regarding the rest.

Bob