[petsc-dev] plan to transition to new documentation and webpages?

[Barry Smith]

> On Mar 6, 2021, at 4:46 PM, Jed Brown <jed at jedbrown.org> wrote:
> 
> The one value-add that comes from ReadTheDocs is its version switcher, which we'd need to do ourselves.

> 
> I've been using this strategy (for stand-alone preview) on a different project and it's working great. We can decide how to merge it (i.e., where the doc job should run).
> 
> https://gitlab.com/petsc/petsc/-/merge_requests/3523

   This seems fine if it builds all the docs, manual pages, HTML of source code etc.  But it doesn't seem to have anything to do with ReadTheDocs? It is not worth arguing over whether this special build takes place on a cloud machine or an MCS machine IMHO; the only question is where the resulting hundreds of megabytes of webpages end up. Can we just have them as artifacts on gitlab.com/petsc/petsc <http://gitlab.com/petsc/petsc> ? I am fine with that if it works.
> 
> I think we should run https://petsc.org from docs generated on main using Sphinx.

   I think Satish's question is what about after a release? Does https://petsc.org <https://petsc.org/> point to docs built from release or main?  Some users will want release but others will want main. Currently I think we have tricks that use a combination of information from both in a couple of places.

   What about all the other parts of docs not built using Spinx, manual pages, html source? 

> We can link to the old site for older versions. I'd be in favor of making https://mcs.anl.gov/petsc (but not its subdirectories) redirect to petsc.org.

  That seems ok to me; but will we need to retrain Google, currently it knows which is the "best" webpage for everything in PETSc (like KSPSolve etc) as being at www.mcs.anl.gov/petsc <http://www.mcs.anl.gov/petsc>/...  so we need to update the docs to start from https://petsc.org/ <https://petsc.org/> 


  We need to start making decisions. They seem to be 

1)  On what physical system are all the docs, Spinx, manual pages, html source actually existing on?  

    Choices?   gitlab.com <http://gitlab.com/> (as artifacts or something else), ReadTheDocs (can it handle storing the the non-Spinx?),  ANL (drawback, only someone with an account can get them onto the system), something else?

2) How are all the docs (Spinx and not) built to go into the physical system they will be on?

    Choices?  gitlab.com <http://gitlab.com/> (nice, since anyone can trigger their building), ReadTheDocs (again nice that anyone can trigger their building, but can they do the non-Spinx easily?),   ANL machine (bad, since requires someone with an account to trigger their build and/or storage). something else?

3) Does the default point completely to docs built on release? Or built on main? Or built on some strange combination? 

Regardless of these questions I think we agree https://petsc.org/ <https://petsc.org/>  (and https://mcs.anl.gov/petsc <https://mcs.anl.gov/petsc> by linking) will be how people find the docs. 


> 
> Barry Smith <bsmith at petsc.dev> writes:
> 
>>   Is the plan still to use ReadTheDocs (which does support multiple versions of all the docs) or to "build them ourselves"? All ReadTheDocs does is run a Sphinx document builder script the user provides and we can do that ourselves and don't need ReadTheDocs to do it for us. In fact, if we do it ourselves we have much more flexibility since you ware not restricted to running only a Sphinx document builder script.
>> 
>>   Patrick, Jacob and others have done a fantastic job moving a lot of material into much better pages, it seems nuts not to be using it all.
>> 
>>  Barry
>> 
>> 
>>> On Mar 6, 2021, at 12:33 PM, Satish Balay <balay at mcs.anl.gov> wrote:
>>> 
>>> This is partly due to the complexity of having some docs from 'release' and some from 'main' branches.
>>> 
>>> We had a way to manage this when all docs were on petsc website - but its not clear how to do this properly with readthedocs
>>> 
>>> Satish
>>> 
>>> On Fri, 5 Mar 2021, Barry Smith wrote:
>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> What is the plan to transition to the new documentation and webpages?
>>>> 
>>>> I go to https://www.mcs.anl.gov/petsc/index.html <https://www.mcs.anl.gov/petsc/index.html> and mostly see the old stuff etc. Our next release is coming up soon and it would be nice to have transitioned out of the old material and to the new material by/at the new release.
>>>> 
>>>> What do we need to do to make this happen?
>>>> 
>>>>  Thanks
>>>> 
>>>>  Barry
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>> 

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