[PD] puredata.info cleanup

[Derek Kwan]

Hello,

I don't know if this is the proper list for this, I found there is a
pdweb mailing list but it looks to be quite inactive so I figure I start
the discussion here... 

I finally got an account on the puredata.info page so I took the liberty
of cleaning up/clarifying some of the writing on the front page if
nobody minds... I didn't want to do anything drastic, just try to make
things less wordy and clear up some things (like move the description of
deken to the Pd vanilla bullet, clear up the description of objects and
canvases, bold things like operating systems).

I don't want to attempt to do anything drastic without consulting the
list, but I feel that the front page could use some changing up. When
you load up puredata.info, you're immediately hit with this wall of
text, which can be quite overwhelming (especially for newbies).
Pd-vanilla and Pd-l2ork are featured downloads to the right of the page,
but you have to wade through the wall of text to actually figure out
what they are. Taking a page (haha, pun) from the processing.org
website, it's clearly marked where to download Processing right near the
top (in a larger font even, along with a link to tutorials and an object
reference guide) with a video above it explaining exactly what
Processing is and what it does (and what's new with Processing 3).
Granted, historically we've had two main distributions of Pd with vanilla
and extended so perhaps there needs to be a little more words explaining
which is what (adding on to that, since extended is defunct and l2ork
isn't ready for multi-platform yet, would it be helpful just to point
everybody to Pd as the main distribution?). Describing Pd and what it
does might be shortened up (and perhaps if you want the longer
description, make an About link on the sidebar) and perhaps throwing a
few pictures and/or visual eye candy while remaining relatively
lightweight/datafriendly could help  Also, posting the current versions 
next to the download links (can this be automated?) would be helpful.

Summing up, I just think the front page of puredata.info isn't as
clear/user-friendly as it could be and it's not particularly helpful in
welcoming new users. Thoughts?

(Also, how do things get added to the News list? The last entry is from
2015 and things such as Pd updates and the NYC conference on there would
be nice.)

=====================
Derek Kwan
www.derekxkwan.com