[Helpers] fscnew-fstlinks.html

[Mystress Angelique Serpent]

At 10:43 AM 1/15/2006, Sandra Davis wrote:
>Hello Mistress,
>
>Is the order of lessons pretty much set for the fscnew?

  no.

>  I did a big
>code clean-up on fstlinks.html, from this link:
>http://www.fire-serpent.org/fscnew/fstlinks.html

   Hmm, the future of that file is uncertain.


>The revised fstlinks.html is now in my FTP folder. I'd love to see it
>swapped in, just to check and make sure I kept everything the same
>overall. Would you swap it in please?

no.


>Other stuff:
>- I made a backup of the current one, and that's there in the FTP too,
>labeled fstlinks_backup011506.html.
>- I added 'Back' links everywhere so if a person clicks down into say
>Lesson 23, they can go back up to where they were rather than lots of
>scrolling.

  Heh. Theoretically, if they are doing the lessons in order there is no 
need for a "back" link. I do like people to do the lessons in order, and I 
don't make it easy for them to skip around. Deliberately make it difficult, 
in fact!

>- I added more closing tags for some of the table elements.

   Table element closing tags missing? I usually check them. Hmm, maybe I 
had nested tables that you changed to stacked tables?

>- I capitalized, corrected some text, adjusted spacing...

   It needed cleaning up.

>Biggest thing I noticed was 1 of the numbers was missing between
>lessons 14 and 17.

Yeah, I screw those up... Maybe a lesson with no links?

>Re-numbering then gives us 58 total lessons for
>fscnew. So the question remains, if we have the order right, and if
>there's more lessons to add too? Amirita?

  The total will be 60.
  I think I sent a work file listing them all in order? That may change as 
I do the edits...

  The bottom of the members index becomes the new first lesson, because I 
find people don't scroll down to read it. Grounding anim will no longer be 
a separate lesson.
   Cannot recall the others just now... my brain is partly elsewhere! They 
are in the archives. Maybe it would be easier if we switch the list over to 
a bulletin board!

   I finally got ahold of Nero 7, which I need to convert the original dv 
tape footage to DVD discs to send to Gustaf. Picked it up today, haven't 
installed it yet. Getting that job done has been more troublesome than I 
anticipated.
   I also have to edit a proposal for my European tour, tonight and send it 
off to Lori in England.  It is midnight now...

>....I understand that re-numbering might have been a big no-no, yet -

   For that file, it doesn't really matter.. I planned to abandon it once 
the new site is up, because I think link checking on the all popups in a 
folder will be easier anyway, than link checking was, when there was the 
whole lesson to scroll through and distract me!

>is there ever going to be a time of renaming, or resorting these new
>files to be exactly as you want?

    I know, I get restless with it too, have for years!! I do want to 
rename them, it will make things easier forever!

   I dread it, it is an awful job, worse now that there are more 
includes... that kind of organization is hard for me. I had a hard enough 
time with the mixed case video filenames from my old partner's windows 
server!  Not sure I ever got them all straight!
   If  we rename all the files, the grad students bookmarks won't work 
anymore....   though I suppose we could make 60 metafiles to redirect, when 
the redesign goes live. The new names and numbers have to be changed in the 
top of the lesson page, too...

   The video files are not on the fscnew mirror, they are not even on the 
same server as the course... and Gustav is going to remaster them all 
anyhow. I guess  we can leave the old vids as they are and name the 
remastered ones to go with the new order.

    Wait with it, for now.

   If you are getting finished with the popups and finding library files, 
you could go through the old work file (in the archives) and come up with a 
new name- old name list for all the files for each lesson, it  would be a 
good first step, and help to keep things straight.

   Keep as much of the old name as possible, like 14matgod.html becomes 
003matgod.html. (00 so the files will sit in order in the directory) 
Remember 7years and 3rdeye, the number is part of the name. Change the 
numbers to words.. sevenyrs and thirdeye. (keep filenames short)


   Could get fancy and list them all, including .smi, rm, includes, etc. If 
you do that, it might be easier to set it up as a doc file with columns or 
tables. Some lessons do have extra files, even moreso if I get more 
animations done.  So don't be too ridgid with it.

   Getting the link popups and library files is the priority.


>I don't mind keeping on as we've been
>going. I just thought - since clearly you've done a great thing by
>pulling the links out into a separate pages, that here'd be the first
>place to rename, renumber, without seriously impacting other places....
>
>My next step that I can see is taking all the files on
>http://www.fire-serpent.org/fscnew/links/
>and making sure they connect back and forward to each other, in the
>proper order.

   I don't want them to connect to each other, only to the lesson page they 
belong to. I want to keep people coming back to the lesson. I don't think a 
"back to lesson" link is even necessary since it is a popup


>Looking forward to hearing from you,

   There ya go! Thanks for your work...

    but please Sandra, stay focused. Updating the FSTlinks file was not on 
the things to do list, not necessary because I did not intend for it to be 
included on the new site. I only used it as a reference.  It did not need 
"back" buttons either, they were not wanted.  I did not care that the 
numbers were out of order, the links in the top worked and they have names. 
Numbering the lessons is a new thing.

   I know link checking and file finding for the popups and library is 
boring work but I do need you to do it.

   It really is simplest to rename all the files as a last step before the 
update goes live.. and it never will if the other stuff doesn't get done. 
If you get distracted and wander off doing other stuff, then email me with 
questions about your distractions, and I get distracted responding... well 
I cannot affoard to! I am too distractible to begin with!! :)

   It is, unfortunately quite natural that the karmic issues of volunteers 
manifest when they do work for me.  The conscious mind wants to be a 
helper, and the unconscious wants to be helped.  Guess which one wins?  It 
is one reason why I mostly gave up on volunteers before, too many of them 
would take a lot of my attention but end up not getting much done.
     Well, I won't go into that... but I am feeling deja-vu!

   I think this stuff is one of the ways you make things hard for 
yourself... and others!!  Took me nearly two hours to respond to this, 
..  please, just do what you agreed to do.