[Bioc-devel] Updated biocViews beta available: please comment

[Gordon Smyth]

>From: Seth Falcon <sfalcon at fhcrc.org>
>Subject: [Bioc-devel] Updated biocViews beta available: please comment
>To: bioc-devel at stat.math.ethz.ch
>Message-ID: <m2u0dmknfu.fsf at fhcrc.org>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
>
>We have a new (and slightly improved) categorized view of Bioc
>packages available and we are looking for comments.
>
>In addition, we have revamped the package description HTML pages.
>
>Please have a look at both and tell us what you think.
>
>Bioc Views: http://www.bioconductor.org/packages/bioc/1.8/vocRoot.html
>New index: http://www.bioconductor.org/packages/bioc/1.8/index.html
>
>
>Best,
>
>+ seth

Hi Seth,

Thanks for your work on this. Content seems good as far as I can see.

I have a comment on visual design, which is that the bold dashed lines 
around the html tables of packages are very distracting. At least on my 
machine, and in my eyes, they set up one of those visual illusions in which 
one sees colour and movement that isn't actually there. I don't see a need 
for these lines at all. As William Cleveland says, avoid using ink that 
doesn't convey information. Simplest is usually best.

On the same theme of keeping things simple, the font and colour changes are 
also just a little overdone here and on the package home pages, to my taste 
at least. For example, on the package home pages, the darker blue shading 
serves to give the strongest highlighting to lines of text which are 
actually just details, not the most important things on the page.

Content is the most important thing of course, but hope you won't mind 
these suggestions on visual design.

On the subject of email addresses on the package pages, please don't 
artificially add email address to the author field. The page
http://www.bioconductor.org/packages/bioc/1.8/html/limma.html
gives my email address three times for some reason, whereas it appears only 
twice in the limma DESCRIPTION file. Believe me, people have no trouble 
finding my email address as it is. In any case, it is the maintainer of a 
package, not the author if these happen to be different, who should be 
contacted when a need arises.

Cheers
Gordon