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What is TXP and what will it be in the future?
I am using Textpattern since Dean Allen published the first version of the program. Mainly as a blog, but for some business-related websites, its CMS-qualities are very usefull. However, I cannot clearly see where all this is going to. I have asked a similar question some time ago, but perhaps now things got clearer.
Blog?
TXP is great for blogs. One could argue that there are systems that deal better with blogs, especially Wordpress is a great system if you do not want to fiddle around with themes, sections and so on and as far as I know, it will soon have genuine tagging-support, a feature that is only achievable with plugins now. (As in TXP.) So could we see TXP’s future as a blogging-tool together with many, many others? I don’t think, it will. All major web2.0-sites (I hate this term, yet everyone knows what I am talking about) do not include TXP in their blog-listings. Take flickr as an example: They list a lot of plattforms to blog to, TXP, however, is not there. The same with a lot of other web2.0-sites.
CMS for Professionals?
Is TXP the right choice when it comes to professional websites that do not deal with blog-like site-structures? I don’t know, but I would say no (although I use it a lot for such websites). On the one hand, TXP is too much focused on blog-like websites, on the other hand, it has the power to easily manage a small and also medium-sized website with ease as long as there are not too many subpages. Here also plug-ins can help, but if you look at TXP’s plugin-development, you can name a dozen active developers and about three times the amount of people more, who switched away from TXP.
Plugins
I had a look into WP and when returning back to TXP (I did it, because nothing beats the flexibility of the section-system), everything got quiet. Too quiet, to be honest. I am just an average user and somehow I have a strange feeling when looking at release dates and seeing that the last TXP-release was half a year ago. Many problems that are quite often mentioned in the forum are either ignored or of no urgency, however these problems include tagging and comment-spam (with which I have to deal with in the last weeks, too).
If you look at the plugins and especially their availability, you have most likely the following situation: One guy made a good plugin. If you visit his website, however, the bottom-line of this person’s blog already says “published with wordpress” and the plugin can be found somewhere in the archives with a new remark telling you that the future development of this plugin has been stopped.
Themes
One of the darkest chapters of TXP is the availability of themes. No matter whether themes are important or not – people use them as a basis or as an inspiration for their own themes. Also, newbie-users would profit much more if they could get an idea of the whole presentational-structure of TXP by examples. I invested much time in TXP and learned the whole thing by myself, but if I learned something from outside, it was by installing (well, if you can call this procedure installing) other’s themes.
Documentation
As long as I have used TXP in its basic english version, documentation, especially the question marks inside TXP were no problem at all. Now TXP can be used in German language (and many others), yet documentation sucks. Even some links from the textpattern.com site to wikis and so on are broken! This makes dealing with TXP really difficult for people who just started with it. Even for me, when looking for specific semantics, it is digging through one of the worst written documentations, therefore, the forum gives me much faster answers! (Also, the translation of the diagnostics into various languages, was a bad idea: The contents of the “Results” in the diagnostics tab should be in one language available only, this makes helping much more easy!)
And, something else: I think the splitting into various domains makes the whole thing really annoying. Keep it simple, somebody once said, and for me help.textpattern.com, wiki.textpattern.com etc. is simply easier to remember than various domains.
Development and Psychology
When I motivated people to start blogging (or to use websites and not sending me thousands of photos by e-mail… whatever), they rejected TXP simply because of its release date. WP is updated every month or at least every two months – was their argument. I myself install WP time to time, because I am really curious on what these guys added to their CMS. So how do TXP-developers deal with this and what are the plans for the future of TXP? Paid service? Blogging-Plattform? CMS for professional websites? Hum. Answers greatly appreciated.
Me
Of course, being part of the TXP-community and using this system, I can also point and me and say: Why didn’t I write documentation, why didn’t I write plugins, why didn’t I contribute in some way to TXP? I could, but I don’t! I have already posted an entry on TXP-themes some time ago and what happened since then? Nothing. I have mentioned some things on diagnostics and how specific errors like the path_to_whatever-variable has to be dealt with. Nothing happened. This is somehow depressing. I again have to bring the Wordpress-example, because I posted bug-reports there too – and they answered me, they told me what exactly will happen and they changed it.
Me 2
No matter whatever I have written above, I love TXP. I love its simplicity, its ease of use and the logic behind it. To all developers (whether active or not) I wish all the best and I hope that sooner or later, there will be a sign of life from you to us, the users.
Perhaps I can give you an idea of what some people think about TXP and its surroundings nowadays… Perhaps someone can bring me a cup of hot chocolate, so that I can sleep well tonight again.
Have a nice sunday,
Michael
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Re: What is TXP and what will it be in the future?
Interesting take, although from my POV it lacks hints on how to find the reasons for the issues you bring to the table.
- So what would you want to change, regarding the documentation? Why is it the “worst one of the worst written documentation”, an title which IMHO is well deserved by the docs for either Pivotlog or PHPEclipse?
- Which unfixed bugs have dropped below the radar?
- What parts of the documentation require a massive rewrite with what target in mind?
- What would encourage you to modify the Wiki yourself?
- How would you compensate all the volunteer developers for contributing and continually supporting plugins they apparently do not need themselves anymore?
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#3 2007-05-13 21:47:43
- zem
- Developer Emeritus
- From: Melbourne, Australia
- Registered: 2004-04-08
- Posts: 2,579
Re: What is TXP and what will it be in the future?
Even some links from the textpattern.com site to wikis and so on are broken!
Which ones?
I have already posted an entry on TXP-themes some time ago and what happened since then? Nothing
What are you expecting to happen?
I again have to bring the Wordpress-example, because I posted bug-reports there too – and they answered me, they told me what exactly will happen and they changed it.
What Textpattern bug reports have gone unanswered?
Alex
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Re: What is TXP and what will it be in the future?
@ Robert: (Grüße, zuerst einmal!)
So what would you want to change, regarding the documentation? Why is it the “worst one of the worst written documentation”, an title which IMHO is well deserved by the docs for either Pivotlog or PHPEclipse?
I have no clue of Pivotlog or PHPEclipse, but instead trying to create a reference for each and every language (de, en, fr, …), a complete documentation in English would be great. To be honest, I never used the wiki, I prefered the FAQs on the website. They give short examples, they show how the whole thing works.
Which unfixed bugs have dropped below the radar?
You got me wrong on this one: I don’t mean that bugs dropped below the radar, I mean that the timespan between release dates is so high that you could easily get the impression that it is so.
What parts of the documentation require a massive rewrite with what target in mind?
The simple message is: Make the documentation as easy navigable as possible. Do not split it into several sections (like the FAQs on this site, which link to the Wiki, where you again have to click a link until you get what you want!)
What would encourage you to modify the Wiki yourself?
Good question. As I said – most of the issues get solved in the forums, so why not just compile the answers, create a somewhat better organized FAQ-List and live happily without worrying about wrong information somewhere. Every question is welcome and gets archived. Why bother at all with writing things that are already written?
How would you compensate all the volunteer developers for contributing and continually supporting plugins they apparently do not need themselves anymore?
I think, I made my point not clear enough. It’s not about compensation and not about ignored bug reports. It’s about how users see (how I see) the whole thing. It looks as if nothing is going on at TXP.
@ zem (Hi!)
Even some links from the textpattern.com site to wikis and so on are broken!
Which ones?
I had some problems and wanted to go back to the default templates. There were links that pointed me to links which pointed me to links to get there. I cannot reproduce this error now…
I have already posted an entry on TXP-themes some time ago and what happened since then? Nothing
What are you expecting to happen?
Somebody tells us great news and says: We are planning to integrate TXP-themes in the future. Or: We are not planning to integrate TXP-themes, because… Or: Good that you mentioned that. Who do you think would participate in TXP-themes-creation? And so on.. Something!
I again have to bring the Wordpress-example, because I posted bug-reports there too – and they answered me, they told me what exactly will happen and they changed it.
What Textpattern bug reports have gone unanswered?
See @ Robert.
To put it all together: My biggest complaint is not that there are ignored bugs, not enough themes or so – I can live with that. What I would like to see is a CMS that shows that it definitely is alive. It’s all psychology! Thanks for listening.
Update 01:11:
TXP-Templates sounds like a great thing for dealing with the problem of the lack of templates with TXP. But how do you interpret Marcus’ last article. You have exactly my point here. He does not really know, whether it’s worth what he is doing, because he does not know what is going on with TXP. No lifesign. No clue!
Last edited by Michael (2007-05-13 23:15:05)
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Re: What is TXP and what will it be in the future?
A change in this:
Released: 18 October 2006 (here)
or some info from the developers’ side on what is currently going on, where the whole project is going to, what TXP will be in the future! I am not interested in technical details, but in… visions!
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Re: What is TXP and what will it be in the future?
Michael wrote:
A change in this: Released: 18 October 2006
This is the release date for the last stable release, so it won’t change until Textpattern 4.0.5 is released (When? “When it’s ready”). Textpattern 4.0.5 is currently in the making, targetting bug fixes and small enhancements with a very sharp eye on compatibility and seamless upgrade experience from 4.0.4 installations.
The next major release, Textpattern 4.1.0 (the one with the “crockery” nick), is in it’s infancy and used as an experimental playground. I’m currently working on breaking and reassembling the “image” tab, for example.
I am interested in visions!
I quit smoking, and subsequently my visions vanished. Sorry ;-)
Related topics have been discussed recently, in a substantial length.
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Re: What is TXP and what will it be in the future?
Hi Robert.
Thanks for the answers – and with this as a blog entry once a week by one of the developers, there would not be this discussion, because people would see what (and that something) is going on!
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Re: What is TXP and what will it be in the future?
Micheal said
>>Themes:
>>One of the darkest chapters of TXP is the availability of themes…..
Although there are really some good templates in textgarden there isnt a load of them available. I agree that probably holds bloggers back from choosing txp but i think textpattern is meant more for designers and maybe developers than bloggers:
I have some good site designs(.ai files) that have been axed by commitees and what not.
Most of them are formatted for large blog style sites. Maybe i could post them up somewhere in the future and
someone could help me make a template out one of them.
I’m to inexperienced to do sophisticated forms and txp coding myself.
what do you think of this?
its a bad hen that wont scratch itself.
photogallery
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Re: What is TXP and what will it be in the future?
Can I suggest a small change on the Downloads page for those people who may think TXP is out of date? Something to emphasise that there are ongoing revisions and that releasing the next stable version when it is ready is definitely a good thing.
I suggest deleting the release date and putting something like this after XML-RPC for Textpattern and before Release Documents:
Release Notes
Textpattern 4.0.4 was released as stable on 18 October 2006 when at v.nnnn. Features and enhancements are being added all the time. Textpattern is currently at v.nnnn and will be publicly released when it is ready. Textpattern releases thoroughly-tested problem-free software rather than beta versions.
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Re: What is TXP and what will it be in the future?
I agree with zero, this would be a good addition/change!
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