dlang.org "Getting Started" page

[Zach the Mystic via Digitalmars-d]

On Saturday, 31 January 2015 at 21:05:27 UTC, Jonathan Marler 
wrote:
> Personally, when I get started with a new language the first 
> things I want are:
>
> 1. Examples (Hello World, File IO, some examples that 
> demonstrate what makes the language unique).

Currently on the front page, dlang.org.

> 2. I want to see an introduction to the language, what makes 
> the language unique, what are the goals of the language, things 
> like that.

Ditto.

> 3. I want to see language references, where can I go to 
> reference how to do something in the language.

The buttons for the language and library references are right 
below Getting Started. They can't be easier to locate than they 
currently are. Other articles of this sort are scattered 
everywhere, both on and off the official websites.

> 4. I want to see build/install/small program tutorials.
>
> I think these 4 things should require 1 click to get to.  The 
> user should be able to click on one link ("Getting Started") is 
> a good name, and then be able to see direct links to all these 
> topics.  Redirecting to a wiki is not horrible but I think the 
> optimal design is to have one landing page that a user can go 
> back to in order to get started and find everything they need.  
> In our case, I think links to the wiki and forums would be good 
> as well, but the most important things should be obvious and 
> easy to get to.  Splitting these topics up among the wiki and 
> the dlang website makes it harder to get around, not horrible, 
> but not optimal.

IMO, the most important thing *is* the Wiki, but a newcomer might 
not know that, so they must be told. If I try to decide the best 
link for them I'll just be duplicating the effort done on the 
Wiki page.

Just send people to the Wiki. It has the best current information 
about what to do and where to go. I think the Wiki should be the 
official place to go to get information on D. Dlang.org should be 
concise and formal, containing only the most permanent 
information. D doesn't have a wealthy funder to pay for building 
a single unified website experience. It needs to leverage the 
community instead.

The proof is already there - The Wiki is currently the best place 
to go for information about D. In fact, I didn't even know that 
it was the best place until I was trying to figure out how to 
improve dlang.org, and realized I would just be duplicating the 
effort done on the Wiki. Yes, the Wiki could be made better, and 
it will, because editing is easy and unburdened by the review 
process. I just made a few edits myself.

I'm follow the evidence. Dlang.org should say, regarding the 
Wiki, "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em." And by referring people 
there to begin with, more effort will be put into it. And yes, I 
am advocating continuing the weird competition between Ddoc and 
other markup languages. Would it be great if Wiki markup and Ddoc 
were completely compatible? Yes, so people could learn Ddoc at 
the same time as editing the Wiki. But as I said, the evidence is 
in the outcome. Please compare the Wiki to dlang.org. I don't 
think dlang.org can keep up.

That said... we should copy look-and-feel from dlang to the Wiki, 
so it won't feel like so much of a defeat!