Add more images -- Enhance web pages

[stumbo]

Add more images to the existing documentation. Show off the artifacts that have been generated. Make it easier for visitor to envision and respond to our mission. Make the site more interesting.

[pamoroso]

I second this recommendation.

Here's a relevant anecdote about STk, a Scheme implementation with Tk bindings. A while back I suggested the maintainer, Erick Gallesio, that he add some screenshots to the project site which had none. After adding some screenshots he reported getting 6X more website visits.

[pamoroso]

The developer of PySimpleGUI, a Python GUI meta-framework, has an interesting approach to visuals.

He initially opened a pinned GitHub issue titled Post your screen shots here! encouraging the users to share screenshots of what they create with PySimpleGUI. The developer later set up an automated workflow to pull the screenshots from the issue and publish them to the project website, with and without the descriptions posted to the issue.

Although automatically adding images to the project website may make it bloated and worsen the user experience, we may create a similar GitHub issue for Medley as an easy to share source of raw visuals. It would give an idea of how Medley is used and showcase what is being created with it.

If you like I can open such a pinned issue with wording like the following.

---

Post your screenshots here

Are you using Medley Interlisp or developing software with it? Please post your screenshots here. We'd love to see how you use the system and what you create with it. Feel free to add a few words on what the screenshots show.

By posting your images here you agree to distribute them under the Medley Interlisp Project license.

Thank you!

[masinter]

just to enumerate the possibilities: We could

• make an email address: screenshots@interlisp.org -- a list or a person alias
• wire up the Hardcopy menu (@rmkaplan was talking about hardcopy to PDF via postscript)
• make a google group for sending screenshots medley-screenshots@googlegroups.com
• revive the Wiki for people to post things

The criteria for evaluation

• Ease of use
• Difficult to mususe
• admin review?

[masinter]

perhaps the simplest would be to make a GitHub Discussion. Discussions are like Issues but they aren't closed by commits etc. Earlier I took some Issues and made them Discussions but I wasn't clear on the distinction.

In the medley repo please.

[pamoroso]

Can I go ahead and create a pinned discussion in the medley repo along the lines discussed here?

[masinter]

Yes--LarryMasinter.netOn Mar 7, 2023, at 12:04 AM, Paolo Amoroso @.***> wrote: Can I go ahead and create a pinned discussion in the medley repo along the lines discussed here?

—Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub, or unsubscribe.You are receiving this because you commented.Message ID: @.***>

[pamoroso]

I created the pinned discussion and seeded it with a few screenshots.

[masinter]

it's great there are some nice screenshots, and we can use them in presentations. But this particular issue is about enhancing https://interlisp.org by adding more images. https://smalltalkzoo.thechm.org/

[pamoroso]

A couple of possible approaches to enhance the project site with more images are to add a few screenshots to some of the pages, and/or embed a photo gallery component to accommodate more (photo gallery add-ons for Hugo are available).

Also, the closest thing to the Smalltalk Zoo I can think of is a specialized version of Interlisp Online, with custom sysloads for showcasing specific features or greetfiles that set up the environment to script the demonstration of some tool or program.

Any approaches you prefer?

[nbriggs]

@pamoroso I don't think it needs to be as space-consuming as making new sysouts or greet files to demo things -- you can have a button to load a file into the normal system which sets up the environment as needed and scripts a demo. You can drive the cursor programmatically and generate clicks and type-in -- I don't remember whether there are already aides for doing that, but Ron might know. Moving the cursor with \SETCURSORPOSITION works.

[pamoroso]

Thanks, that's even better.

[masinter]

(i'm merging the remaining Interlisp.github.io issues into the medley issue list so we have one source... many of these issues might be resolved outside of the web site in any case.

[phantomics]

I'll search the collected docs for interesting images and find places to put them on the site.

[masinter]

I wonder if we could make Medley's SNAPW or hardcopy window or screen be an easy way to copy the image into the clipboard. it would make it easier to put things in github comments. Also we still have the GitBook account and free (because we're a non-profit) for WYSIWYG editing of markdown.

In the meanwhile, I think getting the site text content organized will help in getting relevant images.

[pamoroso]

Here are some screenshots that I may add to the project site, and where on the page:

• LOOPS: The Medley Interlisp Project under What are we trying to accomplish?
• DInfo: FAQs under How to ask for help about a specific function?
• Break window: FAQs under When to pop up a debugger or just report an error and unwind?
• Medley on Raspberry Pi: Install and Run on Linux under Standard Installation (Debian-based systems only)
• Stringscope: Get Involved under Medley projects

[masinter]

to show up nicely on the web site, wouldn't it be better to try to fit a snapshot of a smaller part of the screen? You could then link to the whole-screen view...

[pamoroso]

To make sure I understand how Hugo image formatting works, and see what the result looks like, I'll submit a PR with a cropped image that links to the whole-screen view. Once that works I can add more images.

[masinter]

Can you not preview the Hugo changes using the pamaroso/Interlisp.github.io fork?

[pamoroso]

I actually don't know. How? Do you mean with a local installation of Hugo? It doesn't seem to be possible from GitHub alone.