CRAN task views are useful, but they seem difficult to write and maintain because the XML format is rather limited (no sectioning) and the <packagelist> must be maintained manually. They are also difficult to read because the generated html and .css used are extremely basic, giving an overly dense page. Are there any markdown-like tools for writing a CTV? Is it possible to apply a custom .css to a CTV? -Michael -- Michael Friendly Email: friendly AT yorku DOT ca Professor, Psychology Dept. & Chair, Quantitative Methods York University Voice: 416 736-2100 x66249 Fax: 416 736-5814 4700 Keele Street Web: http://www.datavis.ca Toronto, ONT M3J 1P3 CANADA
See this page by Barry Rowlingson: https://stat.ethz.ch/pipermail/r-devel/2012-February/063338.html Given that CRAN maintainers do not even use JavaScript, I bet CSS does not matter either; plain text is plain good. Regards, Yihui -- Yihui Xie <xieyihui at gmail.com> Phone: 515-294-2465 Web: http://yihui.name Department of Statistics, Iowa State University 2215 Snedecor Hall, Ames, IA On Thu, Jan 31, 2013 at 8:50 AM, Michael Friendly <friendly at yorku.ca> wrote:> CRAN task views are useful, but they seem difficult to write and maintain > because the XML format is rather > limited (no sectioning) and the <packagelist> must be maintained manually. > They are also difficult to read because the generated html and .css used are > extremely basic, giving an > overly dense page. > > Are there any markdown-like tools for writing a CTV? Is it possible to > apply a custom .css to a CTV? > > -Michael > > -- > Michael Friendly Email: friendly AT yorku DOT ca > Professor, Psychology Dept. & Chair, Quantitative Methods > York University Voice: 416 736-2100 x66249 Fax: 416 736-5814 > 4700 Keele Street Web: http://www.datavis.ca > Toronto, ONT M3J 1P3 CANADA
On Thu, Jan 31, 2013 at 4:28 PM, Yihui Xie <xie at yihui.name> wrote:> See this page by Barry Rowlingson: > https://stat.ethz.ch/pipermail/r-devel/2012-February/063338.htmlSadly that page is just the lipstick on a pig. Underneath, its still a pig.> Given that CRAN maintainers do not even use JavaScript, I bet CSS does > not matter either; plain text is plain good.I think we all know that the whole of www.r-project.org could do with a revamp and that large chunks of the CRAN infrastructure would benefit from a redesign. But at the moment, it all kinda works, its just a bit annoying in places, and we put up with it because the effort to make it more functional or shiny (no, not package:shiny) is a bit too much. Sometimes putting lipstick on the pig is enough... Barry
Michael:> CRAN task views are useful, but they seem difficult to write and > maintain because the XML format is rather limited (no sectioning)What type of sectioning would you like to have? In the HTML part, you can use the usual structuring tools like <h*>, <p>, etc. It's not> and the <packagelist> must be maintained manually.Yes, but I recently started adding tools to help checking this. Hopefully I'll also get round to add some more convenience features for this.> They are also difficult to read because the generated html and .css used > are extremely basic, giving an overly dense page. > > Is it possible to apply a custom .css to a CTV?In principle yes. When generating the HTML pages, you can supply the desired .css file. It defaults to the CRAN_web.css file also used for the rest of the web area on CRAN. So when you generate your own web pages on your own server, you can plug in any .css you like. But as a CRAN user/viewer, I don't think you can modify the already existing .html pages.> Are there any markdown-like tools for writing a CTV?No. When I wrote "ctv" XML seemed to be the natural format to go with. If I were to write it again today, I might use something different. But so far XML worked well enough for me. Best, Z> > -Michael > > -- > Michael Friendly Email: friendly AT yorku DOT ca > Professor, Psychology Dept. & Chair, Quantitative Methods > York University Voice: 416 736-2100 x66249 Fax: 416 736-5814 > 4700 Keele Street Web: http://www.datavis.ca > Toronto, ONT M3J 1P3 CANADA > > ______________________________________________ > R-devel at r-project.org mailing list > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel >
On Thu, 31 Jan 2013, Yihui Xie wrote:> See this page by Barry Rowlingson: > https://stat.ethz.ch/pipermail/r-devel/2012-February/063338.html > > Given that CRAN maintainers do not even use JavaScript, I bet CSS does > not matter either;You lose - see help("ctv2html", package = "ctv"). Have I won anything? ;-) Best, Z> plain text is plain good. > > Regards, > Yihui > -- > Yihui Xie <xieyihui at gmail.com> > Phone: 515-294-2465 Web: http://yihui.name > Department of Statistics, Iowa State University > 2215 Snedecor Hall, Ames, IA > > > On Thu, Jan 31, 2013 at 8:50 AM, Michael Friendly <friendly at yorku.ca> wrote: >> CRAN task views are useful, but they seem difficult to write and maintain >> because the XML format is rather >> limited (no sectioning) and the <packagelist> must be maintained manually. >> They are also difficult to read because the generated html and .css used are >> extremely basic, giving an >> overly dense page. >> >> Are there any markdown-like tools for writing a CTV? Is it possible to >> apply a custom .css to a CTV? >> >> -Michael >> >> -- >> Michael Friendly Email: friendly AT yorku DOT ca >> Professor, Psychology Dept. & Chair, Quantitative Methods >> York University Voice: 416 736-2100 x66249 Fax: 416 736-5814 >> 4700 Keele Street Web: http://www.datavis.ca >> Toronto, ONT M3J 1P3 CANADA > > ______________________________________________ > R-devel at r-project.org mailing list > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel >