Forum .LRN Q&A: Re: .LRN Gardens
The bigger problem is: I thought full wiki functionality included the ability to add html, so I thought it would be easy to cut and paste here css and html so we could see what a new design might look like. That appears not to be the case with edit-this-page, or?
More generally, now that we've gotten this far, I think we might want to go back a step and think about what we'd like to see happen.
First, wouldn't we want to have a repository of present code and an arrangement that would allow for fast lookup? I am thinking of how TopStyle shows you code in one window and sample text in another. It might be helpful to think of it this way: how do we prepare a style sheet that someone like myself who has worked with css and is about to dig in could quickly find his or her way into the problem. We would have this repository and an intro on Jade's documentation list and away we go. Put in those terms, the issue is also one of opening the code up to others, and when I say this I am thinking of one of my clients, a professor, who has already started messing with the code to change portlet names, add images, etc.: that is, we are after not only good design, but accessibility, and good design through increased accessibility. And we worry about accessibility because we want our early adapters to own the technology and contribute to the catalog of good designs and readily make the transition from intermediate to advanced users. It is not that I haven't been to design school and can't build a decent design, but that once my users start participating in the design -- which they do with the current wonderful interface customization features of .lrn -- they start contributing all sorts of things that we professionals might not readily see. Besides, the customer is always right, and if they are happy and use the stuff in their classes then I, as .lrn sysadmin, am happy, too.
Second, I think we want a way to drop a file onto the site so others could see and comment on the design, and that's where the Zen Gardens site model really shows its stuff: designers download the current css style sheet and upload their variation: the code on the sample page can then be viewed through this lens. The Zen Gardens site features dozens of designs, serves as a showcase, and I like to think that such functionality would serve as a fine repository and community building function. I'm not sure of how to do this other than simply adding such files by hand myself: I'd like to be able to upload my file and then see it linked on the .lrn gardens site so that I click on it and can see immediately how it works with the current array of style sheets. If edit this page doesn't do it: what would?
I'd also like to find an explanation of how the current styles have been built so we might know better how to improve on them: this might involve some of those who have built the current styles sharing some of their notes.
