From owner-freebsd-doc@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Jun 15 07:46:10 2007 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-doc@FreeBSD.org Delivered-To: freebsd-doc@FreeBSD.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [69.147.83.52]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id DBA2F16A469 for ; Fri, 15 Jun 2007 07:46:10 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from koen.stegen@oma.be) Received: from bonnie.oma.be (bonnie.oma.be [193.190.231.71]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4FA6913C48A for ; Fri, 15 Jun 2007 07:46:07 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from koen.stegen@oma.be) Received: from [193.190.144.221] (bonnie.oma.be [193.190.231.71]) by bonnie.oma.be (8.11.1 (Revision 1.5) /8.11.1) with ESMTP id l5F7P6a12346 for ; Fri, 15 Jun 2007 07:25:06 GMT Message-ID: <46723ED1.7050609@oma.be> Date: Fri, 15 Jun 2007 09:25:05 +0200 From: Koen Stegen User-Agent: Thunderbird 1.5.0.8 (X11/20060911) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: freebsd-doc@FreeBSD.org Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: Subject: Dependencies in ports pages reduce legibility for newcomers X-BeenThere: freebsd-doc@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Documentation project List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 15 Jun 2007 07:46:10 -0000 Dear all, As a complete newbie* to FreeBSD, I'm trying to figure out whether FreeBSD can do what I want. In particular I wanted to have a look at the graphics capabilities so I ended up at page http://www.freebsd.org/ports/graphics.html Unfortunately, this page displays all dependencies (Requires:) inflating the page to over 500 kB. I think this classifies as a big download, and the casual surfer should be warned about its size beforehand. Regardless of the size of the page, the dependencies make the page hard to scan, especially for newcomers, as newcomers don't know what they are looking for -- at least not yet. I would suggest to hide the list of dependencies behind a link: Long description | Package | Sources | Main Web Site | Requirements or put it on the Long description page. I'm aware of the master-index page which does not display the dependencies, but that page is not really helpful to evaluate only the graphics capabilities. The size of that page qualifies as a big download too, so another warning would be appropriate. Kind regards, Koen Stegen Belgium * I *am* reading the book (currently page 112) and I haven't even started burning ISOs yet, so please be patient with me.