Website message overhaul, pass 2

[Robert Clipsham]

On 20/11/2011 08:40, Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:
> Thanks to all who provided feedback! I read again the entire thread,
> then made one more pass:
>
> http://d-programming-language.org/new/
>
> I didn't make technical/aesthetic changes (JS/noJS, placement of news,
> links to secondary pages etc) so when providing additional feedback
> please focus on the core message.
>
> There are significant changes of content: some keywords are different,
> text is shorter, no more "community" section (probably it'll go on a
> different page).
>
> There's a prominent example at the top. I'm thinking to rotate that
> randomly, and pick examples out of an always-running contest.
>
>
> Thanks,
>
> Andrei

This is a huge improvement! Ignoring the broken +Example links:

  - The code sample at the top is terrible, the equivalent C is only a 
couple of lines longer and it doesn't show off any of what makes D 
better! Admittedly you're limited in what you can do here as the code 
needs to be fairly understandable by non-D programmers, but what's there 
is... Not good at all.
  - Rotating the example is a brilliant idea, particularly if powered by 
a continuous contest.
  - This is less about the message, but how about an "explain this" link 
in the corner of examples with little hints for C/C++/Java programmers, 
so when clicked additional comments appear in the code or bubbles appear 
above on hover or something, they would include small bits of text like 
"auto can be used in place of a type to infer the type from what is 
being assigned"... But better worded of course.
  - Maybe it's just me, but I don't like the title being so long. I 
think "The D Programming Language" on its own is fine. The rest of it 
may still have a place, but it needs to be elsewhere in my opinion (even 
if it just moves to the line below).
  - Your summary sentence at the start reads "It pragmatically combines 
efficiency, control, and modeling power, with safety and programmer 
productivity." You then go on to talk about convinience, power and 
efficiency... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topic_sentence The sentence 
needs to be changed to reflect what you go on to detail below - 
currently you're making statements without backing them up (note that 
you do back up most of it, not all of it though, and the subheadings 
don't make it obvious where you can find out more about the claims).
  - convinience -> convenience
  - I can't really fault the bullet points, they're a huge improvement.
  - I have a reasonably large screen and can't see the news section 
without scrolling. To me this means there is no news ;)

I'm starting to nit-pick, it must be getting better.

-- 
Robert
http://octarineparrot.com/