Help: SiteNav

finding Tracks, Stories, and Code

About Site Repo
Silent links appear
Guiding fingers through the web,
Pages bloom and flow
- Haiku by ChatGPT 4o
This site is all about code: repositories, stories, bites, and bits of code. This page will help you find code and language reference material you need.

1.0 Site Structure:

The dropdown, below, provides definitions for categories of page collections used in this site.
These include Thread, Story, Bites, Bits, Repositories, and tracks.
Site Structure Definitions 
Thread Sequence of linked web pages using Next, Prev, and Pages links. If you click the "Pages" button in the bottom menu you will see the pages making up the Help thread.
Story Thread that covers some relatively large topic, e.g., the C++ Story. A story promises to cover its topic fairly completely in at least an intermediate level of detail.
Bites Thread were each page focuses on a single small topic, but all share the same area of discourse, e.g., some important topics in the Rust programming language. A Bite thread makes no promise to cover its area completely, e.g., here's some interesting topics in ...
Bits Small code fragments in some programming language intended to support comparisons with other languages that implement the same fragments, similar to comparing sentences in English and Spanish.
Repository
Track A Track Summary page, a Story, and Bites
Not all tracks have both stories and bites, but will eventually.
All content is available from the top menu:
  • Site loads Site Explorer which links to the home page and information about how the site works.
  • Rust loads Rust Explorer which links to Rust specific discussions and code.
  • C++ loads C++ Explorer which links to C++ specific discussions and code.
  • C# loads C# Explorer which links to C# specific discussions and code.
  • Python loads Python Explorer which links to Python specific discussions and code.
  • WebDev loads WebDev Explorer which links to web development specific discussions and code.
  • SWDev loads SWDev Explorer which links to software development specific discussions and code.
  • Basics loads Basics Explorer which links to platform and language specific discussions and code.
  • Viewer provides two side-by-side page views, intended for comparisons.
  • Blogs provides dropdown menu for Site Explorer views of specific blogs.
  • Help provides dropdown menu for Current Explorer views of specific Help topics, like this page.
  • Resrcs provides dropdown menu for Resources useful for learning about and developing code.
Pages are controlled from the bottom menu. Most buttons there result in Explorer sending messages to the right frame content pages.
  • Clear requests page to clear all dropdown menu displays.
  • Controls toggles view of controls in left panel.
  • About requests page to toggle display of about information.
  • Keys toggles menu of keyboard shortcuts.
  • Sections toggles menu of page section links.
  • Pages toggles menu of links to thread pages.
  • Prev moves to previous page in pages menu.
  • Next moves to next page in pages menu.

2.0 Page Structure

Figure 1. Host and Frames
Each content page is rendered from an Explorer iframe. Figure 1. shows that for The Rust Track home page embedded in the Rust Explorer's iframe, which appears in the Explorer's right pane. Each Explorer is rendered from the Page Host iframe. That appears in the Page Host bottom pane (most of the browser view - everything below the Page Host bar). This structure is a central part of the Site design, supporting most of its navigation activities. But that has behavior that may be surprising. Since the Page Host is what the browser displays, its address bar content does not reflect any navigation using controls in an iframe, e.g., almost all site navigation. To compensate, the page name is always shown in the bottom menu on the right, followed by the "Copy Url" button which displays the page url and also loads that into the Windows clipboard to allow pasting.
  • This site provides Explorers for the Site and each of its Tracks. Explorers provide a page with a topic links panel and an embedded iframe panel to display content. Clicking a topic link changes content displayed in the iframe. Navigating in an Explorer iframe using content menu selections or page links does not change the page's browsing history. That means that the browser back arrow will go to the first page loaded in the iframe. That may not be what you expect.
  • Most links embedded in page text open the destination in a new tab.
    That allows you to quickly switch back and forth between source and destination pages. But that can result in a lot of open browser tabs; not a problem if you close tabs as soon as you are done with them.
    Most links accessed from the menus relocate current window to selected destination.
    This Help page is an exception. It opens as a new tab that can be torn off to view in a seperate window, while viewing the page for which you need help.     The principle behind this behavior is this:
    • A link opens a new tab if the link's content complements the information in the current page.
    • A link opens in the current iframe if its content is a change of topic.
  • Keys supports keyboard navigation:
    Depressing the k | K key pops up a list of keys that navigate to specific pages or page locations. You get the same list by clicking on the "Keys" button on the bottom menu.
  • Top menu supports site navigation:
    Track Explorers Site, Rust, C++, C#, Python, WebDev, SWDev, Basics
    Blogs Menu of links to opinion pieces about software development
    Help Menu of links to help topics, including this page
    Resrcs Menu of links to Videos, Presentations, ...
  • Bottom menu supports current page and thread navigation:
    Toggle ctrl panel Close and open left pane
    Clear Close open menus
    Controls Toggle Page Controls view at bottom left
    about Last modified date for current page
    keys Table of keyboard shortcuts
    Sections Navigate page with clickable links
    Pages Links to all pages in current thread
    Prev Move to predecessor page
    Next Move to successor page
    Copy Url Display current page url and copy to clipboard
    (eventually will be used for bookmarks)
    GoTo displays table of "GoTo" links (in progress)
  • SiteMap - links to almost everything in site.