P5.js documentation suggestions

Hi, I stumbled on p5.js because I wanted to use p5.sound on a React project. (I didn’t spot another sound library with the pan() feature, which I need.) It looks like a very cool resource and community. I can see that a huge amount of work has gone into it.

It took me quite a while to figure out what to do. The p5js.org website is lovely, but hasn’t quite caught up with development, which means you are going to lose some possible audience. Here are some things I noticed:

a) the sidebar is not consistent; most pages include “Editor” but the “Reference” page does not p5js. org/reference/ (I have tried to put in links to everything I’ve identified but when I tried to post I was told I could only put in two links, so I will try to denature the other links by taking out https colon slash slash and putting a space after the first dot.)

b) the “Get Started” and “Download” pages are confusing and have duplication. The Download page acknowledges that it is mis-named. There are now several ways to get started that are easier than downloading. (you Editor, codepen, etc.) I would suggest refactoring these two pages, putting “Get Started” first.

c) I found what I needed on the p5 wiki github.com/processing/p5.js/wiki; however, there is no link to it from the “Learn” page, so I had to stumble on it.

d) In particular, I needed to use “instance mode” and this was the only place I could find it github. com/processing/p5.js/wiki/Global-and-instance-mode. I didn’t see a link to the wiki from the Learn page, which would have been helpful.

e) It was also helpful to use the npm module, which was not clearly documented. This was a particular problem for adding on p5.sound from the npm module. The answer was sprinkled throughout p5.js-sound issues on GitHub github. com/processing/p5.js-sound/issues/137. It would be great to have this clearly documented on the p5.js-sound GitHub repo as well.

f) I also stumbled on noCanvas(), and included it. Maybe it would have worked without it.

g) So maybe a page on “other ways to use p5.js” that includes at least links to something about global vs instance mode, maybe something on p5.dom, no canvas, using p5.sound stand-alone, using npm, etc.

h) the links to p5.sound and p5.dom at the top of the Libraries page are broken. At least the link to p5.sound at the top of the Reference page works, but there is no link to p5.dom there. So the only way to learn about p5.dom is by looking at individual classes/methods; there doesn’t seem to be an accessible overview.

Again, thanks for all the work that has gone into this. I did manage to get my project working. I hope that some of this is helpful!
Best, Nat Kuhn

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Dear Nat –

Thank you for taking the time to document detail feedback on improvements for the p5.js website.

I am not on the website team, but if you have not already done so, I would suggest submitting these as separate issues to the open source website repo in its Issues section:

So, for example, the Editor link missing from Reference pages would be one issue.

If any of these issues are quick fixes that you want to submit a suggested correction yourself as a pull request, you could also do it there.

Many thanks,
Jeremy

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Unfortunately I don’t have time to break into pieces, etc., but I have submitted it to that Github repo, and folks there can handle it as they choose. Thanks for taking the time to direct me to the right place.

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