Implementations as places
Lassi Kortela 17 Jul 2019 16:16 UTC
Each Scheme implementation is also its own place (own community with its
own communication pace and style, main author(s) from a particular
country, etc.) We should take advantage of this (it'll be a lot easier
than the academia thing). The first step would be to get a visual feel
for the existing website(s), logos and other materials for each
implementation, and the combined site could have a similar feel when
browsing documentation for that implementation.
(It can be just a subtle allusion to the style of that implementation,
doesn't have to be an exact copy. But something that feels "at home" to
people who are used to that implementation would be nice. E.g. Gauche's
website (https://practical-scheme.net/gauche/) has a distinctive
beige/brown color scheme, so if the doc browser has Gauche-related pages
it should use similar colors IMHO.)
Not only will this be fun and refreshing, it will also be easier to
navigate since we engage a bigger portion of users' brains. Brains are
wired to automatically notice details like this, so they reduce
cognitive load a lot. This will help newbies get familiar with Scheme
even faster. You know the way people often don't remember the name of a
restaurant, but remember where it is, what it the exterior looks like
and what the food tasted like. Instantly people would form the
association that Gauche is "that beige Scheme", etc. Websites should do
a lot more of this kind of thing, and simple cases like this are not
really difficult, it just takes a little effort and patience to do it.