cl@isbd.net wrote:
But why aren't there good non-browser site management suites? Or are there some that I have missed?
That's a good question. I'm going to take a shot in the dark on the answers:
1) Web tools are inherently machine/OS agnostic; making non-browser tools that are machine/OS agnostic is difficult. Meaning that someone could come up with a fantastic package for say, MacOS, Windows or Linux but then there's difficulty porting the package. Though it's true that one could try to write something in Java which is much more portable.
2) The expertise to write such tools is quite different from the expertise required to write these web tools. They would need to be in a different language, to start, but really there is a huge separation between what Drupal currently uses and what something like this would require.
3) The tool would likely be complicated by the inherently interactive nature of this kind of website. The idea of a Drupal-based site is that multiple maintainers can do their thing, and that adds another layer of complexity.
4) While complexity isn't really a barrier if enough people are interested in the tool, there just isn't a huge demand for it. Most designers are ok with doing it on the Web. Yes, Drupal takes a lot of grief for its UI being 'behind the times' so to speak, and this is one area we've been addressing. But the demand for tools like this has to come from the people capable of writing them; that's the joy and sorrow of opensource. Just because people want something isn't enough; it has to be wanted by people capable of creating it.