[pypy-dev] from private mail out of discussion on building a community pythion website

[Dinu Gherman]

Laura Creighton:

> from discussion on marketing python, re: some place where we could all
> contribute more, a place where we could all contribute python hints and
> help and whatever, plus links to our blogs, and something written for
> suits, and we get to use Tim Parkin's logo which python.org rejected...

Hi Laura and others,

it's not entirely clear to me why this message pops up on this
particular PyPy-list, but read on...

Patrick K. O'Brien wrote:

> Laura Creighton <lac at strakt.com> writes:
>
>> What I wanted was a set of basic templates, that establish a look.
>> and then the abilty to edit what I want to say _in emacs_ using some
>> sort of basic markup -- like ReST.  And then, all you really have to
>> do is type.
>
> I agree completely with this sentiment.  Here is what would be my
> ideal system:
>
> * text files written using reST conventions
> * text files stored in cvs or svn
> * style sheet to work with reST that ends up looking like Tim's design
> * the result is static html pages that are search engine friendly
>
> Here is how people would contribute website content:
>
> * read tutorial about reST and updating content
> * ask for privileges at the cvs or svn repository
> * check out the files from cvs or svn
> * make changes in preferred text editor, or
> * check out the templates and create a new document
> * run unit tests which make sure the html gets created properly
> * make sure the html results look good with the style sheets
> * check the changes into the cvs or svn repository
> * cvs or svn changes get emailed to anyone who wants to monitor them
> * someone can reverse the changes, just like code in cvs or svn
> * the website gets rebuilt from the cvs or svn reposity each day
>
> If the content is in reST, we can also produce XML, PDFs, latex,
> OpenOffice, etc.
>
> Thoughts?

This is largely exactly what I'm doing for my own Starship pages,
except for using CVS, see also: http://python.net/~gherman
They are created from a homebrewn Wiki system, named HeyHeyWickie,
which pipes ReST files through Docutils and EmPy to get dynamic
pages locally, but I can also create static HTML snapshots which
I'm transferring to the Starship. Right now I'm working on a PDF
"take-away" version of such a snapshot.

The main feature is that you can have arbitrary Python code on
every page (which makes it dangerous, of course, to put it online,
but it allows me to generate a whole lot of things very lazily,
i.e. at the time when a page gets called, like miniature screen-
shots, say), see some samples below:

   http://python.net/~gherman/HeyHeyWickie.html
   http://python.net/~gherman/UnreleasedStuff.html

The version of HeyHeyWickie you can download right now is quite
alpha and was quickly written for Linux Magazine. They kindly put
it online as a PDF, see:

   http://python.net/~gherman/Publications.html

But I hope by the end of the year a new version will be out. BTW,
here's a preview of a PDF snapshot, not entirely up to date and
with some hyperlink bugs:

   http://python.net/~gherman/index.pdf

Regards,

Dinu

PS: Here's the code for the file UnreleasedStuff.txt:

------ 8< ------ 8< ------ 8< ------ 8< ------ 8< ------ 8< ------

These are some screenshots of things to come, things which are not 
finished
yet or which I'm too busy to release... Some were converted from PDF 
files,
which are available for `download <unreleased>`__, too.

@{
import os, wickie, utils
projectHome = "/Users/dinu/Developer/Starship/unreleased"
imgFolder = wickie.getImageFolder(BASE)
shots = utils.makeScreenshotIcons(projectHome, imgFolder)
if imgFolder[0] == '/':
     shots = map(lambda (base,small): ("file://"+base, "file://"+small), 
shots)
}

.. raw:: html

   <table>
   <tr>
   @[for i in range(len(shots))]
   <td>
   <a href="@shots[i][0]"><img src="@shots[i][1]" alt="@shots[i][1]" 
/></a>
   </td>
   @[if i % 5 == 4]
   </tr></tr>
   @[end if]
   @[end for]
   </tr>
   </table>

------ 8< ------ 8< ------ 8< ------ 8< ------ 8< ------ 8< ------

--
Dinu C. Gherman - http://python.net/~gherman
......................................................................
"The best way to predict the future is to invent it." (Alan Kay)