[Twisted-Python] First impressions of Windows downlod

Andy Robinson andy at reportlab.com
Sun Oct 13 04:02:13 EDT 2002


Hi everyone,

Some tiny pointers on "first impressions" about the docs..
This is in no way intended as criticism - it would just be
nice to iron out any glitches in 'getting started' 
instructions before you get to Version 1.0. IMHO it's really 
important that the first 15 minutes after downloading something 
for the first time go really well; a lot of people won't look 
at the source if the examples don't run. 

First: I tried the windows installer, could not get twistd 
or coil working, tried the source version and figured it out. 
You have an 'admin' directory in the source distro, but these 
are not in the Windows distro.  Equivalents are in the 'scripts' 
directory. Once I added 

  if __name__=='__main__':
      run()

to the end of coil.py and twistd.py, the rest of the instructions
were fine.  I suggest adding the script handlers and
mentioning this in installing-twisted.html and
using-twistedweb.html.

Second: why not include the 'doc' directory or examples in
the Windows EXE?  I know you want to keep it small but at
least the basic HOWTO.  If not, have a 'doc' directory with 
a readme pointing at a separate download containing docco
and examples.

Third:  I think there needs to be a prominent paragraph
in the 'End-Users' and 'download' pages telling Windows
users what to do or what not to do differently.  I also suspect
there's a bunch of other Windows-specific things which might
make a page of information somewhere.  

 I have two staff whose minds are not yet twisted and 
who are as ignorant as me about networking; I can volunteer them
as "usability testers" if this helps.  


My dumb questions about Twisted itself will follow separately :-)

Andy Robinson
ReportLab





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