Chunked guide

[Randall Wood]

On Wed, Jul 23, 2008 at 8:45 PM, Ryan Schmidt <ryandesign at macports.org> wrote:
> On Jul 22, 2008, at 04:38, Randall Wood wrote:
>
>> On Tue, Jul 22, 2008 at 5:11 AM, Ryan Schmidt wrote:
>>
>>> On Jul 22, 2008, at 03:42, Randall Wood wrote:
>>>
>>>> On Tue, Jul 22, 2008 at 3:19 AM, Ryan Schmidt wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> On Jul 20, 2008, at 09:34, markd at macports.org wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> The only "problem" with the chunked version is you can't
>>>>>> do a browser search of the whole document, but I'm not sure how many
>>>>>> people want that.
>>>>>
>>>>> I was initially going to suggest making a chunked guide because it's
>>>>> what I'm used to from other projects like php and mysql. But since
>>>>> then I've found it convenient to have it all on one page. I do use
>>>>> the browser search feature to quickly determine whether or not the
>>>>> guide mentions a particular topic at all before filing an enhancement
>>>>> request.
>>>>>
>>>>> I can learn to live with a Google search instead. If we make the
>>>>> chunked guide the default, we should provide a Google search box
>>>>> which searches just guide.macports.org.
>>>>
>>>> Why not place this across all MacPorts sites?
>>>> http://www.google.com/coop/cse?cx=011837386708472035020:5lqtx6zp3qw
>>>
>>> Searching across more than just guide.macports.org does not answer the
>>> question "Is this in the Guide?" It doesn't even answer the question "How
>>> do
>>> I use this?" For example, I might want search the Guide for "build.dir"
>>> to
>>> see what the default is. But using your search, I get a bunch of tickets
>>> where build.dir is mentioned, which is not what I wanted. If we remove
>>> the
>>> single-page Guide, or make the chunked Guide the preferred Guide, then we
>>> need to provide a way to search it, and only it.
>>
>> Are the topical searches within results not showing the guide? (Now  I
>> just need to figure out how to get a topical search to be the default
>> one...)
>
> You mean the part after I do my search where it says:
>
> Refine results for foo: Guide Tickets Changesets Ports Wiki
>
> Honestly I hadn't seen that until now. It works fine when I click "Guide".
>
> Still I'd rather not search over everything, then have to refine my search.
> I want the right search from the beginning. I guess I can type "more:guide"
> into the search box. It would be easier if there were a drop-down menu where
> I could select how I want to refine the search right at the beginning.

The Google Search API (javascript) makes this possible. So, is the use
of JavaScript to draw the search form acceptable or not in this case?

-- 
Randall Wood
randall.h.wood at alexandriasoftware.com

"The rules are simple: The ball is round. The game lasts 90 minutes.
All the rest is just philosophy."