Top differences of TextPattern versus WordPress?

slobizman · 2006-02-06 20:24:29

I’m a Word Press user, taking a look at TextPettern. I was told although not as intuitive as WP, TP is more “CMS-like”.

Can some of you chime in with their ideas on the top things that I will find that are different in TP that in WP?

hcgtv · 2006-02-06 20:35:48

The biggest difference between Wordpress and Textpattern is the templating.

Where in Textpattern it’s just HTML and txp:tags, in Wordpress there’s also PHP in the mix. That and that alone keeps me from considering or recommending Wordpress, Mambo or any other system that does not abstract out the programming layer from the end user.

slobizman · 2006-02-06 20:43:18

Yes, that has bothered me. You don’t always know if you can really just swap out a theme or not, without causing havoc. So, in TP, you can usually count on swapping templates and not having anything blow up?

How difficult it is to change templates?

And, I’ve been looking around for templates in TP to see what people are doing with it, but I’ve yet to find any sites that show as many templates as WP has themes. it’s easy to find hundreds of WP themes, but at most I’ve just seen about 20 TP templates. What’s up with that? Have I just not found the right site?

> hcgtv wrote:

> The biggest difference between Wordpress and Textpattern is the templating.

Where in Textpattern it’s just HTML and txp:tags, in Wordpress there’s also PHP in the mix. That and that alone keeps me from considering or recommending Wordpress, Mambo or any other system that does not abstract out the programming layer from the end user.

slobizman · 2006-02-06 20:49:44

What about the concept of WP “pages” where I can write pages of information, as opposed to articles. Then, I can list links to these pages to display them.

As for the initial page, does it have to be the blog articles display, or can I design it any way I like?

Elenita · 2006-02-06 22:32:05

I haven’t used Wordpress extensively (I played with Strayhorn a while back), but here’s my two cents on “pages”:

The thing about Wordpress is that it’s blog-centric; the assumption is that you’ll be using Wordpress to blog, but may need other “pages” to display some static information that doesn’t necessarily fit into a blog format (e.g., an about page). Pages are almost an afterthought.

Not so with Textpattern. Certainly, you can use it to blog (and many people do) and there are some blog-related features out of the box. But Textpattern is first and foremost about building <strong>sites</strong> and has no problem with having blog and non-blog content side by side. For that matter, it has no problem with many different types of information and media (i.e., text, photos, files for download, etc.) side-by-side, and styling them as uniformly or as differently as you please.

So, to answer your questions: yes, you can have pages—as many as you’d like — and they’ll have no trouble integrating with each other and the blog. And you are welcome to design your front page any way you’d like — even making it look completely unrelated to your blog if that’s what you want.

Re: themes. Have you seen <a href=“http://www.textgarden.org”>Textgarden</a>? But also, keep in mind that those are only pre-packaged templates and you can essentially design whatever you want.

As for how “easy” it is to swap out templates—Textpattern does things a little differently from other systems and may take a little longer to grasp. That said, the tags are logical, and anyone who knows HTML shouldn’t have any trouble adjusting to its markup. And another thing in Textpattern’s favor is that it separates presentation and content entirely, so even if you “blow up” your site with a major templating mistake, all your blog entries/photos/whatever should still be visible. They might look ugly, but they’ll still be visible. Screwing up your design won’t mean screwing up your site.

Last edited by Elenita (2006-02-06 22:50:19)

alexandra · 2006-02-06 23:16:53

Natalie Jost did compare TXP and WP

Jeremie · 2006-02-06 23:46:01

From my limited personnal experience, another big difference is the community. It may be bad luck, but I haven’t got any answers or advice on the WP forum when I was trying it out. The TXP forum is much more responsive, more active.

thebombsite · 2006-02-07 00:16:39

And as for templates, apart from my TXP Systems I also have a load of Gemini templates. I think there might be a few more than 20. And there’s TextGarden of course. But these should be a starting point and a way of learning how to use TXP. They should not be an end point.

And the big difference between WP and TXP is that WP is for bloggers whereas TXP is for websites.

I should also point out that TXP isn’t “more CMS-like”, it is a CMS.

slobizman · 2006-02-07 00:17:57

I can agree with you on this. Usually very few of my questions get answered on the WP forum for some reason. And, look at the help I’m getting here already! Thanks!

> Jeremie wrote:

> From my limited personnal experience, another big difference is the community. It may be bad luck, but I haven’t got any answers or advice on the WP forum when I was trying it out. The TXP forum is much more responsive, more active.

thebombsite · 2006-02-07 00:26:45

I would also agree with that. I never really got on with the WP forum when I used it.

slobizman · 2006-02-07 00:34:40

That was really helpful.

Thanks to everyone for your help!

> alexandra wrote:

> Natalie Jost did compare TXP and WP

runbei · 2006-02-07 01:25:33

Beg pardon, this may seem a bit off topic at first, but here goes.

The connecting thread is that I tried Word Press and quickly got lost and said some bad words.

I was therefore very attracted to TextPattern because it was designed by a writer, the lead-in pages were wonderfully clear, and it promised to let me design a website, not a blog, and then just write, write, write. Please join me in chanting: “Dreamweaver Must Die!”

Now I come to TextBook, which is very, very Word Press-like in its power to evoke the nastier emotions. Golly, isn’t this fun? I can’t actually print the manual and go lie down and study it. Rather, I get to play with Wiki links and read off the screen for hours – or print one little teensy bit of the manual at a time. This is SO much like spending all day getting a driver’s license in Japan.

I downloaded the Word/PDF “manual,” which is eight pages long and covers about as many Textile commands as I can count on the fingers of one hand. There’s an awful lot more to TP than that, and I’m wondering if anyone can point me to a <long, long, printable> tutorial or an actual PDF manual with dozens, perhaps hundreds, of pages.

Thanks.

Textpattern CMS

Textpattern CMS support forum

#1 2006-02-06 20:24:29

Top differences of TextPattern versus WordPress?

#2 2006-02-06 20:35:48

Re: Top differences of TextPattern versus WordPress?

#3 2006-02-06 20:43:18

Re: Top differences of TextPattern versus WordPress?

#4 2006-02-06 20:49:44

Re: Top differences of TextPattern versus WordPress?

#5 2006-02-06 22:32:05

Re: Top differences of TextPattern versus WordPress?

#6 2006-02-06 23:16:53

Re: Top differences of TextPattern versus WordPress?

#7 2006-02-06 23:46:01

Re: Top differences of TextPattern versus WordPress?

#8 2006-02-07 00:16:39

Re: Top differences of TextPattern versus WordPress?

#9 2006-02-07 00:17:57

Re: Top differences of TextPattern versus WordPress?

#10 2006-02-07 00:26:45

Re: Top differences of TextPattern versus WordPress?

#11 2006-02-07 00:34:40

Re: Top differences of TextPattern versus WordPress?

#12 2006-02-07 01:25:33

Re: Top differences of TextPattern versus WordPress?

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