[% library = libs.splash section = 'index' ; WRAPPER page %]

[% splash.bold %] is a library of templates which can be used to build fancy looking HTML pages from a number of simple but powerful components and fundamental elements. It is effectively an HTML widget set which can be used to greatly simplify the process of building user interfaces for web document systems and applications.

[% splash.bold %] is built on top of the HTML library. It defines some basic colour schemes (currently limited to only a few colours, but that's likely to change) and provides some very small (8x8 pixels, < 1k) and simple graphics for creating rounded corners in these various colours. With nothing else but regular HTML we can build some very attractive buttons, tabs, panels and other widgets which can be used to brighten up any web page.

[% splash.bold %] was chosen as a name for the libary as a tip-of-the-hat to Slashdot whose web site ([% PROCESS html/link link="http://slashdot.org/" %] ) contains many nice user interface components such as these. I was inspired by their look and allowed myself to draw influence from them as well as a number of other places. The Slashcode engine which runs Slashdot has recently been rewritten (by Chris Nandor) to use the Template Toolkit for generating interface elements, so we like the guys at Slashdot and (hopefully) they like us, too. :-)

This is the first public release of [% splash.bold %] and should be considered as alpha quality code. Everything is subject to change and at this stage, I can make no guarantees of "correctness" about any of the generated HTML. My HTML skills aren't what they used to be and I'm not very up-to-date with all the latest browser compatability issues. Having said that, I've tried to use vanilla HTML wherever possible and tried to keep everything as simple, small and correct as I can. If you have an comments, suggestions, corrections, additions, or any other contributions to make then please do get in touch. There are plenty more widgets waiting to be written. Feel free to write them.

A final word of warning - don't go overboard in using these widgets. Use them sparingly, or rather, use them appropriately. There is more to good design than a fancy paintbrush and you can have too much of a Good Thing. Remember that the most important thing on any web page is the content. Use these widgets as an enhancement for your content, not a replacement.

[% FOREACH page = library.order %]
- [%- INCLUDE html/link link="${page}.html" text = page %]: [% library.pages.$page %] [% END %]

[% END %]