A new web newsreader

[Andrei Alexandrescu]

On 12/8/11 4:55 AM, Vladimir Panteleev wrote:
> As mentioned previously, I've been working on a web frontend for the
> DigitalMars NNTP server. I collected ideas and inspiration from the
> several threads on this topic in the last few weeks, and now I think
> that the result is ready for beta testing and general use.
>
> The current (temporary) URL is:
>
> http://dfeed.kimsufi.thecybershadow.net/discussion/

This is an absolutely fantastic development. It's exactly the kind of 
thing that D needs - using D to write something nontrivial and highly 
useful. I just got in touch with Walter about it, and as of now you have 
in us strong supporters for replacing the existing Web bridge with this one.

One thing though - you must use hyphenation everywhere :o).

Here are a few large topics that we should discuss a bit:

- Would you consider merging your codebase with 
d-programming-language.org? That way we'd have a simple deployment 
target and simpler unified maintenance. The downside would be that your 
project would have less individuality as an independent NNTP-WWW bridge. 
(That could be partially addressed with directory structure etc.)

- If not, how do we go about integrating with 
d-programming-language.org? For example say we change the navigation 
panel on the left. Then we'd need to coordinate with you to pull the 
code, regenerate your own page, and so on.

- I'm thinking something with iframes may work for the above issue, but 
cross-domain iframes are limited. Could we serve your content off d-p-l.org?

My nits to be added to others':

* Registration flow is odd. You register, but then you're not taken back 
to the forums page.

* Password during registration appears in clear.

* The C and C++ forums should not be on the same page. We should focus 
only on the D forums. It's possible to link them via a new page.

* This may be a good time to retire a few unused forums such as dtl., 
debugger, dwt, ide, and merge their contents with digitalmars.D.

* The forum descriptions and possibly layout should emphasize 
digitalmars.D as the "main" forum, and digitalmars.D.learn as the "main 
n00b" forum. Generally first-comers will be confused as to where they 
should be posting when facing a large table that must be read in full, 
and most of the time they want either digitalmars.D or digitalmars.D.learn.

* The lists dmd-beta etc. should be under a different heading and 
deemphasized. They are for experts only and not nearly as prominent as 
the main forums.

* The style file should be loaded from d-p-l.org such that changes in 
style will be automatically picked up by the forums page.

* In horizontal split mode, the footer is disproportionately large (btw 
I made it smaller recently).

* Use of bold in split mode for unread posts seems a bit heavy. How 
about a different background color?

* It's not obvious how people should set up their own gravatar.


Andrei