beta.python.org content

[Ron Rogers Jr.]

Steve Holden wrote:
> How does
> 
>   http://beta.python.org/about/beginners/
> 
> look?
> 
> regards
>  Steve

Hi, I'm an actualy Python beginner, decided recently to "play" with 
Python.  I'm a "user", not a professional programmer or developer of any 
sort, so I guess the "beginner's" page would be aimed at folks like me.

It looks fine, degrades pretty well in Dillo.

But.....it needs more Beginners links and info.  The "Why Python" seems 
a bit out of place, more akin to something that would be on the beta 
home, which looks a little "corporate brochure site" to me.  It also 
seems a little "bland" as a beginner site goes. A little bit of "fun" 
and "friendliness" in the spirit of "Python for Everyone" might be 
something to add.  That's what brought me to Python.  The idea that 
Python was not just for people like ESR who've been programmers for 
decades, or for corporate types designing applications containing a new 
paradigm of competencies in objective oriented programming, but for high 
school students, hobbyist programmers and even those who've never 
written a line of code in their lives.

It has been suggested that a Google-like hierarchy might be useful and I 
agree, though I don't know how that might work in practice. You could 
have a bland "brochure" site with the proper buzzwords for the 
corporates, another for the devs with late breaking patches, news, RSS 
feeds, whatever they need. and one for Education and/or beginners, with 
perhaps a colorful friendly look. (but perhaps keeping the same basic 
overall base look)

I actually like the look of the current http://www.python.org  It packs 
a lot of useful links in one page and it seems "friendly"  Which 
probably sounds silly to describe an emotional reaction or "feel" to a 
site. Admittedly it doesn't look "corporate" or "slick professional" but 
that's not necessarily a bad thing.

I agree with others about the new logo. It lacks a certain, pardon the 
expression, "je ne sais quoi". (one of the things that got me interested 
in Linux was seeing that penguin associated with the word "Linux" and 
making me curious about what that Linux thing was all about)  But it 
would make a good logo for a "enterprise.python.org" 
"business.python.org"  So perhaps different logos for different purposes?

A cartoony friendly python in front of a blackboard for education 
(similar to the Pygame python)

A python reading a book at the base of a larch for a listing of books

That sort of thing.

The python.org site's been useful to me, pointing me to interesting 
software, documentation and whatnot. Though I didn't know about IDLE 
until I saw it mentioned in a post on Slashdot in a story asking for 
recommendations for Python IDE's.  I am "very" new to Python.


CronoCloud (Ron Rogers Jr.)