Talk:Categorized Main Page/archive

Article Focus

Should there be articles about specific devices (that seems like repeating wikipedia) or should the articles be focused on how the devices are related to designing an OS. Instead of having an article about what some device is, have it be about writing drivers for it, how the device operates and what the OS needs to do to communicate with it.
-Telexicon 18:04, 2 December 2006 (CST)

You mean pages like wikipedia:Sound_blaster? If you use the Sound Blaster as an example, we probably shouldn't a single Sound Blaster page, instead we should have a category page that provides a brief intro description to the sound blaster family, links the the wikipedia articles, and has links to our pages that cover more programming specific info by major card type.
-Chase 18:29, 2 December 2006 (CST)

I agree. It would be useful to have a small introduction for each device and then list articles and resources for it. Then in another section of the article list our pages that go into details about interaction with the device and writing code for it. For writing code do you think things should be in C when they can be? -Telexicon 00:06, 3 December 2006 (CST)

Pseudocode should suffice for the real programmers (apart from it being not prejudiced about one language), but i guess some people are better off with some sample code which they can directly import. Personally, i'd prefer pseudocode unless either C or ASM is more obvious. Supplying both would probably be best - see the coma bug part here - Combuster 09:50, 3 December 2006 (CST)

Layout

In the hardware section on the main page I have noticed that some of the links go to categories and some of them go to articles. Would you prefer each of those be articles with links to more articles all of which are in the same category? Or would you rather have each of those links be categories with a small description and listing each of the sub-articles in that category? -Telexicon 00:06, 3 December 2006 (CST)

As an example each of the links on the main page could go to a main article for each category. That main article and all its sub-articles would all be included in that category (unless the sub-article led to a new sub-topic in which case it would become a sub-category). If a person were to click on the category page there would be a small paragraph on what the general idea of the category is and then a link using the {{main|Main Article}} template. It might be laid out like this:

• Main Page
  • Category X Main Page (in Category X)
    • Sub-Article X₁ (in Category X)
    • Sub-Article X₂ (in Category X)
    • Sub-Category Y Main Page (in Category Y)
      • Sub-Article Y (in Category Y)
    • Sub-Category Z Main Page (in Category Z)
      • Sub-Article Z (in Category Z)

with the categories laid out like

• Broad Category (Hardware, OS Theory, Tools)
  • Category X (uses {{main|Category X Main Page}} - it is a sub-category of Broad Category.
    • Category Y (uses {{main|Category Y Main Page}} - it is sub-category of Category X

If any style for this were to be used it would be nice to have it be consistent across all the pages so this wiki's layout isn't confusing to readers. Telexicon 04:42, 3 December 2006 (CST)

how about not categorizing categories and instead provide a header with subcategories/parent category manually. More work, but should solve your issue - Combuster 09:50, 3 December 2006 (CST)

Related Content

At the bottom of many articles is a list of related reading, forum topics and external links. How do you think these should be laid out? Is there a consistent that is preferable for many users? Would it be something where every related item set gets its own heading? :

Related Articles

• Article1
• Article2
• Wikipedia:Article3 (also, do you think interwiki links should go in Related Articles or External Links?)

Related Threads

• Thread1
• Thread2

External Links

• http://www.link1.net
• http://www.link2.net

or should it be where all of them are subheadings of Related or See Also

See Also

Articles

• Article1
• Wikipedia:Article2

Threads

• Thread1
• Thread2

External Links

• http://www.link1.net
• http://www.link2.net

As with the last item I think it would be best if it was consistent. Also, for all these items could they possibly be compiled into a style guide if any final decisions are made on how the articles should be laid out? Telexicon 04:59, 3 December 2006 (CST)

Or just a links section as in here? - Combuster 09:50, 3 December 2006 (CST)