Textpattern CMS support forum
You are not logged in. Register | Login | Help
- Topics: Active | Unanswered
Txp 'Manifesto'
Was just looking at those urgent image-handling needs of the newcomer… I’d forgotten how spoiled we are in our little TextForest of tranquility. Imagine what real growing pains would be like. Having fifty people clamouring on like that at the same time instead of just one.
I wonder if the whole minimal, bloat-free dev approach to Txp that has been wisely guarded over the years needs a modernized write up, like a Manifesto of Textpattern Development or something, and put under a prominent link where it can be found and pointed to readily instead of having to address the same thing — newbie after newbie, thread after thread.
And if the ethos on development has changed at all, to some understandable degree, now would be a good time to reflect on it and clarify what the new ethos might be. Seems like something to pair/link with a roadmap too. Keep the realism in context.
Just a thought. Could save a lot of headache if that was a sign of things to come.
Manifesto. Roadmap. Market distinction.
Sounds like a Venn diagram in the making. The donut hole being ‘What is Textpattern’, indubitably.
Offline
Re: Txp 'Manifesto'
+1
Offline
Re: Txp 'Manifesto'
Maybe we (gulp, I) should dust off TXP Mag for a comeback Issue 5 in the new year. Maybe. Just maybe.
Offline
Re: Txp 'Manifesto'
+1
Yiannis
——————————
NeMe | hblack.art | EMAP | A Sea change | Toolkit of Care
I do my best editing after I click on the submit button.
Offline
Re: Txp 'Manifesto'
Sounds good to me. The ethos hasn’t changed much utilising any of the following buzzwords:
- Lightweight.
- Nimble.
- Minimalist.
- Extensible.
- Convention over configuration.
- Separation of Content and Presentation.
- Template-based layouts.
- …
Anyone want to kick off some starting text so we can tweak it and find a place for it on the website or docs? Either here or on the docs site or a Team note or wherever is fine.
The smd plugin menagerie — for when you need one more gribble of power from Textpattern. Bleeding-edge code available on GitHub.
Txp Builders – finely-crafted code, design and Txp
Offline
Re: Txp 'Manifesto'
Destry wrote #314977:
Maybe we (gulp, I) should dust off TXP Mag for a comeback Issue 5 in the new year. Maybe. Just maybe.
happy new year
…. texted postive
Offline
Re: Txp 'Manifesto'
Don’t get your hopes up. The planets of five galaxies would have to align.
Offline
Re: Txp 'Manifesto'
Bloke wrote #314980:
Sounds good to me . . . Anyone want to kick off some starting text…
I should be the first to try, considering my outburst here, but I’m still trying to understand variables.
I spent a few hours tonight in the mag’s admin-side hoping to reorient to the templates there and failed miserably. For the life of me I could not unpack the ‘issues’ system. I don’t know if there’s a macro involved, or what, but trying to piece the forms together and trace the variables for all things issues and get a mimic thing going in a different site (but not exactly the same model)… Well, for me it was as satisfying as a Rubik’s Cube. I blame the increase in grey hair.
Offline
Re: Txp 'Manifesto'
Destry wrote #315000:
I blame the increase in grey hair.
Nah, that’s just a side-effect of wisdom ;-)
TXP Builders – finely-crafted code, design and txp
Offline
#10 2018-11-18 18:09:26
- Saldacenkaw
- Member
- Registered: 2006-12-28
- Posts: 30
Re: Txp 'Manifesto'
i’ve been using textpattern since 2006, on small and simple but very valuable for me projects. TXP is not about some teсhnical competetive advantages or something like this. it’s pure idea that anyone (ok, almost anyone) without help and without expensive developers may build clean and beautiful solution for spreading his ideas. It’s more about people here, their vision and creed (forgive me the rant words, i don’t know other :) Until these “fifty people” are here, I guess Textpattern doesn’t need any manifesto, like “First things first”, because you are Textpattern and everything is going well. If someone newcomer didn’t realize it – it his own problem, not yours.
I know, my english is horrible
Offline
Re: Txp 'Manifesto'
Saldacenkaw wrote #315353:
i’ve been using textpattern since 2006, on small and simple but very valuable for me projects. TXP is not about some teсhnical competetive advantages or something like this. it’s pure idea that anyone (ok, almost anyone) without help and without expensive developers may build clean and beautiful solution for spreading his ideas. It’s more about people here, their vision and creed (forgive me the rant words, i don’t know other :) Until these “fifty people” are here, I guess Textpattern doesn’t need any manifesto, like “First things first”, because you are Textpattern and everything is going well. If someone newcomer didn’t realize it – it his own problem, not yours.
Nicely said :)
Ok let me try:
The Textpattern Ethos
The Textpattern CMS is built to run as efficiently as possible with zero reliance on plugins for the initial iteration of a website.
The web development team behind Textpattern have made a very clear distinction over the years, between the core Textpattern version, vs Textpattern core plus plugins.
Image handling is an area this question comes up a lot, ‘How can I upload images in the write tab?’, for example. The answer has always been to use plugins to circumvent any limitations Textpattern core has for each individual website’s requirements. While it may be frustrating to the general user, especially if a plugin is outdated or is unsuitable for specific requirements, this ethos has kept the core Textpattern code over the years simple, un-polluted, easier to manage and troubleshoot.
There is a fantastic opportunity at hand for anyone that enjoys Textpattern, to give coding plugins a try. It has been known to happen that people can organise via the forums with a demand for a plugin, and a developer comes along to meet that demand. In that sense we can all help each other, and the Textpattern community has helped each other finish plugins and troubleshoot bugs for years, and continue to do so.
Textpattern simplicity is also it’s strength. It is secure, it is not prone to outputting badly formatted front-end code because it utilises Textile. With browser’s now offering tabs, it’s extremely easy for an end user to upload images in one tab, and type the id into the article tab. In fact when multiple images are being uploaded there is no other workflow that would be faster.
It’s not that Textpattern started out not trusting users, it’s that users looking for a quick fix of view and click, visually insert, ended up with badly formatted HTML at the front-end and frustrations will still occur. ‘I have a window to see images now but I can’t scroll 50 images on my mobile screen in a popup’ or some such!
Textpattern in that sense has made itself future proof. By keeping everything in core simple, everything the end user does is easier for them.
But if it’s not it’s time to get inspired and build a plugin! There are plenty of orphaned plugins to play around with and get a starting point for what you might need too. :)
…………………
I <3 txp
…………………
Offline
Re: Txp 'Manifesto'
Not to raise the dead, or anything, but I think what I had in mind was something more than what’s ever been said or written before. Hilary is getting a little bit there, but there’s a much wider scope.
Not only has Txp changed over the years, but so has the project (death of founder, etc), industry (new tech choices/trends), web (privacy/conduct/laws), and the world in general, not least of which critical environmental issues around energy consumption that should and do influence how people think of their digital routines and habits.
So when I think of a ‘manifesto’ — a different artifact term might be better — I’m thinking of something that has not been written for this project before, at least not in the same way, and takes its battle-worn self into account with the changing universe. Where does Txp fit into the grand scheme anymore, and for who, and why? Where does it see itself in another ten years, if it still expects to be around? How might trends we’re seeing influence this vision? That’s not meant as me rocking the boat; it’s just examples of the kind of thinking that might go into this before drafting a response.
This could be an opportunity for a story, a narrative. Not a bloated one, but not a dry piece of bulleted expository either. The scope might span past/present/future in appropriate amounts, respectively, and be as much principles as relaying functional wizbangery. Someone should be able to read the thing and think ‘wow, this project is awesome’, not just for the software’s abilities, but for the project’s enlightened and altruistic position in an ever-degrading web and society. The piece should make people want to find ways to be involved, even if they don’t need to be, because Txp, at the very foundation, is grounded in what’s good and important for the world. Could we even convey that? We could if it was true.
I’d find something like this from a project very interesting, and I can’t think of anything out there like it, though I’ve not really searched.
If we don’t ever expect to have more than our ’50 veteran users’, and believe it letting nature take its course, great. Do nothing different. And, again, we’d really want to think about how the Txp project fits into the cosmos before ever attempting a piece like this anyway. But if any wisened soul can envision the Txp project in ten years (I have trouble imagining myself being online then), and can lay that out for review, that would be worthwhile pondering. The past and present notions could fall into things easily enough, and some developmental and copy editing passes could tighten it all up.
And, yes, a lot of work nobody has time for, I know. And, yes, this could require turning some rocks (like evaluating use of Microsoft GitHub) that some would rather leave alone.
I just wanted to expand on my original thinking, better or worse.
Offline