working on the dlang.org website

[Borden]

Better late than never (the last couple weeks have been very 
busy):

On Tuesday, 23 July 2013 at 21:00:08 UTC, Walter Bright wrote:
> It's true that they are based on HTML output. However, and this 
> is a big however, they need significantly different HTML output 
> than one puts on a web site. This is currently accomplished by 
> changing the macro definitions that Ddoc uses, and by carefully 
> recoding the Ddoc source to use those macros. While generating 
> ebooks is often billed as "just pipe your website HTML through 
> our converter program!" the reality is that you'll get more or 
> less utter garbage if you try that.
>
> I've published several ebooks that also exist as web pages, so 
> I'm familiar with the process.

I don't entirely agree with this, although I understand where 
you're coming from. The cost/benefit of settling this firmly 
favours the costs, so I'll let it slide.

> I assume this one is it?
>
> https://github.com/D-Programming-Language/dlang.org/pull/320
>
> I posted a response. (But in general, PR's that are flagged as 
> "We can’t automatically merge this pull request" tend to not 
> get much attention. Despite that, we can and should do better.)
>
> Can you please make some PR's which illustrate your work in 
> converting it to HTML 5?

Well, I can't, as I've said a few times, because I was instructed 
to wait for 
https://github.com/D-Programming-Language/dlang.org/pull/271 to 
get merged, which, I'm told, will shorten my workload 
considerably. I realise, since complaining about it, that you've 
commented on that PR. Maybe, if I have some time, I'll try to 
tackle it so that it'll automerge (which is tricky because merges 
are a moving target).

> http://forum.dlang.org/post/ypcykidvradkrhnobaey@forum.dlang.org
>
> has quite a few responses; more than most threads.

But I'm afraid that's analogous to saying "Whilst it is true that 
we haven't come around to fix your collapsed roof, we've picked 
up when you called more often than we have for other customers, 
so I don't see what you're upset about."

> The arguments were (I thought) well laid out in that thread and 
> responded to. Reasonable people can disagree - it doesn't mean 
> that one side is irrational.

My training is in business, not computer science. One learns in 
business school that the successful companies satisfy the needs 
of a particular market. When the customers' needs drift from what 
the business produces - as invariably happens in almost all 
markets - the business can either adapt to its changing 
environment or invite competitors to do its job for them.

Therefore, regardless of how irrational your customers are, there 
is often a benefit to giving them what they want.