[Grok-dev] Re: I know it sucks, but here goes.... grok.zope.org :)

[Martijn Faassen]

Sebastian Ware wrote:
> I am very happy that you like it. If nobody (Martijn?) pulls the plug I 
> hope to be able to implement this within the next couple of weeks. Just 
> need to discuss implementation details.

Finally got the chance to look at it. Good progress! I am not going to 
pull any plugs. Thanks very much for persevering.

The main issue of debate between me and Sebastian remains Grok himself. 
Sebastian makes some points:

* the old grok images are not very suitable to website layout. I concede 
this point.

* I'm not sure I get this second point correctly: the new vectorized 
grok is better than the old grok, even if vectorized. We need to kill 
our darling to make progress.

As I mentioned before, last week I was at the DZUG conference. Various 
people commented that they liked the Grok picture and I think it's been 
doing much good in spreading the grok meme. Original Grok has a lot of 
personality somehow. The new picture seems to have a bit less 
personality, and its expression is a bit more, um, mean (the combined 
smile/frown does this). The old Grok has this innocent relaxed 
expression, which we can then combine for humoristic effect with the 
Grok smashes picture:

http://startifact.com/grok_smash.jpg

Now spontaneously at the sprint surrounding the conference someone 
started working on a vectorized version of the original Grok in 
Illustrator. I didn't suggest it to him, he's just into vector graphics 
and started to do the work. I also know Kevin Teague has been doing work 
with original Grok. This to me is more evidence that people really, um, 
grok the original Grok. What I saw when he showed me wasn't complete, 
but he'd gotten quite far. I contacted him just now to see whether he'll 
finish it. We can then add "original Grok" to the Grok family.

I realize that this discussion may amount to "painting the bikeshed" to 
some, but it just seems strange to me that something that has been 
inspiring quite a few people in the last half year is something we 
should do away with.

This should take nothing away from the great progress that has been made 
by Sebastian. I certainly hope we can start integrating this into 
grok.zope.org proper soon and I wouldn't want this point of contention 
to be the cause of holding anything up.

Regards,

Martijn