[MacPorts] #19298: ports.php: category pages hard to navigate; consider by-letter navigation

[MacPorts]

#19298: ports.php: category pages hard to navigate; consider by-letter navigation
---------------------------+--------------------
  Reporter:  ryandesign@…  |      Owner:  jmpp@…
      Type:  defect        |     Status:  new
  Priority:  Normal        |  Milestone:
 Component:  website       |    Version:
Resolution:                |   Keywords:
      Port:                |
---------------------------+--------------------
Changes (by ryandesign@…):

 * cc: ​mojca@… (added)


Comment:

 I have considered this problem recently, and I'm not convinced by-letter
 navigation is doable. It might work acceptably for categories where the
 first letter of the port names have a somewhat uniform distribution. But
 categories like python, perl and php will have quite a large collision as
 most of the ports in those categories begin with the same letters.

 Ultimately, I think lists of ports in categories are not very useful for
 users, and we should focus instead on having a good search function that
 will let users find what they're looking for. Lists of ports in categories
 are still a good way for search engines to index our ports tree, but they
 don't care that they're navigating by page number.

-- 
Ticket URL: <https://trac.macports.org/ticket/19298#comment:4>
MacPorts <http://www.macports.org/>
Ports system for OS X