Thank you for well though out and detailed suggestions.
As chance may have it, the reference duplication problem you detail in the first part of your post was fixed today when the LSB ratified the new library spec revision. A bunch of links and pages in the PT Reference section have been removed, retired, or redirected.
As for the second part of your post, the menu bar "problem". I'd love to fix this problem but here's the deal: the main site and the Parts Tracker run on very different software. In fact, the Parts Tracker is approaching 20 years old and is largely running on the same software (perl scripts) that it was when it was first started. The main site, on the other hand, has going through 3 major design and software revisions since. The 2 systems really can't talk to each other very well (really more of a PT problem that the other way) so they are kept separate. The day will come when "Parts Tracker 2.0" is made as we can more closely integrate things but that day is quite a ways off.
The above was a long winded way of explaining why the menus are different. The main site they are generate programmatically from templates and article listings. The PT they are hard coded. I also haven't put a huge amount of effort into making the PT "mobile friendly" like I attempted to do with the main site since the PT is really primarily only used while on the desktop. We will, however, probably eventually move the entire PT Reference section to the main site navigation tree, leaving only PT functions on the PT menu. I've also been exploring how to more closely tie the design of these 2 areas together (without breaking things) so I can make changes and have it appear in both areas.
I do, however, like your documentation banner suggestion and will look to incorporated it into the main site scheme.
Please keep the suggestions coming.
As chance may have it, the reference duplication problem you detail in the first part of your post was fixed today when the LSB ratified the new library spec revision. A bunch of links and pages in the PT Reference section have been removed, retired, or redirected.
As for the second part of your post, the menu bar "problem". I'd love to fix this problem but here's the deal: the main site and the Parts Tracker run on very different software. In fact, the Parts Tracker is approaching 20 years old and is largely running on the same software (perl scripts) that it was when it was first started. The main site, on the other hand, has going through 3 major design and software revisions since. The 2 systems really can't talk to each other very well (really more of a PT problem that the other way) so they are kept separate. The day will come when "Parts Tracker 2.0" is made as we can more closely integrate things but that day is quite a ways off.
The above was a long winded way of explaining why the menus are different. The main site they are generate programmatically from templates and article listings. The PT they are hard coded. I also haven't put a huge amount of effort into making the PT "mobile friendly" like I attempted to do with the main site since the PT is really primarily only used while on the desktop. We will, however, probably eventually move the entire PT Reference section to the main site navigation tree, leaving only PT functions on the PT menu. I've also been exploring how to more closely tie the design of these 2 areas together (without breaking things) so I can make changes and have it appear in both areas.
I do, however, like your documentation banner suggestion and will look to incorporated it into the main site scheme.
Please keep the suggestions coming.