On Mon, Jan 29, 2007 at 08:43:10AM -0800, Earl Miles wrote:
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:
- 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.
True, but we don't seem to have a corresponding problem with other software, Firefox is avilable for several platforms. Apache is Linux only but the most widely used web server. There's absolutely no need for a site management tool to run on multiple OS's.
- 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.
.... and? There was far more expertise available in the past for writing a non-web version.
- 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.
Yes, but there are many, many applications for a non-multiple-maintainer software. It's only when you start saying 'blog', 'wiki', etc. that the need for multiple maintainers and contributors arises.
- 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.
From what I have seen while hunting around for something that works
for me I think there *is* a significant need for something like this.