Re: What is wrong with Bugzilla? [Was: Re: GCC and Floating-Point]

[chris jefferson <caj@cs.york.ac.uk>]

Kai Henningsen wrote:

>>The entire GCC website (of which GCC
>>Bugzilla is a part) could be the poster child for why developers
>>should never be allowed to design user interfaces, especially web user
>>interfaces. I'm sure I'll get flamed for wanting style over substance
>>or about the proliferation of eye candy, but the GCC web site and it's
>>    
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>... which I think are poster childs why non-technical people *usually*  
>ought not to be allowed to design web sites.
>
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>>attendent support pages can only be charitably described as eye trash.
>>Yes, you can find the bug link if you read the main page long enough
>>and move down the page slowly enough, or if, like me, you fire up
>>Firefox's find and use that to go quickly to the bug link. But that's
>>beside the point. At the very least the design of the GCC web site
>>makes the whole project look like someone who has just discovered the
>>web and decided to build a few pages. And please don't harp on making
>>    
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>To me, it looks *very* professional.
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I'm sorry, but I felt I couldn't leave this comment alone. The main GCC 
page is badly designed. The logo looks very amateurish, and also try 
exploring the page without actual knowledge. I just tried this. I 
suspect most people on their first visit are here because they want a 
copy of gcc, and it's perhaps reasonable to assume at this point they 
don't know a huge amount, and perhaps don't want to compile from source 
(if they had a copy of gcc, they wouldn't be here :). Yes, I know and 
you know it's not gcc's job to provide that, but I'd look for a copy of 
gcc by typing "gcc" into google, and gcc.gnu.org is where you get to first)

Lets try to get a copy of gcc. Firstly I see something in the top-left 
marked "releases". I click on it. It doesn't mention 4.0, and despite 
reasonable attempts I see no sign of code. Next I see a mention of 4.0.0 
in the main body. After wandering around that link for quite a while I 
find a link to the mirrors page, which is full of source.

Next try documentation, installation. Talks about compiling again. 
Finally, at download, binaries I find what I want. Seeing as I suspect 
that is the link most people want when they first visit, it should 
perhaps be a little more obvious, and in the main body near the top?

Chris