[petsc-dev] empty space on left side of website pages

[Patrick Sanan]

Part of the reason that the huge, empty sidebar looks so bad is that it's on the front page - in the interests of simplicity and focusing on getting the build stable, I haven't been focusing on it, but there is still discussion to be had about whether and how to make a prettier front/landing page.

> Am 26.04.2021 um 21:05 schrieb Jed Brown <jed at jedbrown.org>:
> 
> The sphinx-pydata-theme has great mobile support and lots of development energy behind it. I don't want to switch themes again based on a sidebar sizing concern. If the sidebar width is super important, we can adjust the CSS. The standard CSS has this, which I think is what we'd want to adjust.
> 
> .container-xl {
>  max-width: 1400px
> }
> 
> Scott Kruger <kruger at txcorp.com> writes:
> 
>> Rather than have us edit the CSS, perhaps just getting people to agree
>> to a different theme:
>> https://sphinx-themes.org/
>> 
>> I think alabaster, aiohttp, cloud_sptheme, ...  meet Barry's complaint.
>> 
>> There is a lot to like on the kotti_docs_theme for example although the
>> bar is on the right instead of the left.
>> 
>> Scott
>> 
>> On 2021-04-26 08:58, Patrick Sanan did write:
>>> As far as I know (which isn't very far, with web stuff), changing things on that level requires somehow getting into CSS.
>>> 
>>> For instance, you can see what it looks like with other widths directly from Firefox (fun, didn't know you could do this):
>>> - go to the page
>>> - hit F12
>>> - click around on the left to find the <div> that corresponds to the part you care about
>>> - look in the middle column to find the piece of CSS that's controlling things (here, something called .col-md-3)
>>> - edit the CSS - in attached screenshot I change the max width of that sidebar to 5%.
>>> 
>>> But, I want to avoid having to do things on the level of CSS and HTML - I think that should be done as a collective effort in maintaining the theme (and Sphinx itself).
>>> If we really care enough about the width of that sidebar, we'll create a fork of the theme, add a setting for it, and try to get it merged to the theme's release branch.
>>> 
>>> 
>>>> Am 23.04.2021 um 23:12 schrieb Barry Smith <bsmith at petsc.dev>:
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>>   Thanks. Even if we just leave it is there a way to make it a little "skinnier", it seems very wide in my default browser.
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>>> On Apr 23, 2021, at 1:08 PM, Patrick Sanan <patrick.sanan at gmail.com <mailto:patrick.sanan at gmail.com>> wrote:
>>>>> 
>>>>> It is possible to put things there, as in this link which is both documentation and example:
>>>>> https://pydata-sphinx-theme.readthedocs.io/en/latest/user_guide/sections.html#the-left-sidebar <https://pydata-sphinx-theme.readthedocs.io/en/latest/user_guide/sections.html#the-left-sidebar>
>>>>> 
>>>>> Other projects using this theme have the mostly-empty left sidebar:
>>>>> https://numpy.org/doc/stable/ <https://numpy.org/doc/stable/>
>>>>> https://jupyter.readthedocs.io/en/latest/ <https://jupyter.readthedocs.io/en/latest/>
>>>>> 
>>>>> (They also have fancier landing pages, though, which we have been discussing).
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> It goes away on mobile devices or small windows, at least.
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>>> Am 23.04.2021 um 19:21 schrieb Barry Smith <bsmith at petsc.dev <mailto:bsmith at petsc.dev>>:
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> 
>>>>>>  There is a lot of empty space on the left side of the website pages; under the Search slot.  Does this empty left side need to be so large, seems to waste a lot of the screen?
>>>>>> 
>>>>>>  Barry
>>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>> 
>>> 
>> 
>> -- 
>> Scott Kruger
>> Tech-X Corporation               kruger at txcorp.com
>> 5621 Arapahoe Ave, Suite A       Phone: (720) 466-3196
>> Boulder, CO 80303                Fax:   (303) 448-7756