Well said, thanks! I also beleive that a right way to the average "CMS user" friendly CMS is to hide Smalltalk as long as possible, until user is encouraged enough to customize his website in depth. And in this customization is where we actually have an advantage over others. But, we need to build that non-Smalltalk front part first. There is no way to skip that part. Best regards Janko On 20. 03. 2011 23:49, ariliquin wrote:
I am a smalltalk newbie and interested in Smalltalk CMS. In answer to your question, from my point of view, I would like to say:
1. The ability to achieve something functional, say a my own custom main page, quickly and easily, is very encouraging (I haven't even begun to be able to do this in Pier etc, I am still wading through the concepts that are being presented, as opposed to the functionality that is made easily accessible).
2. The CMS is built on top of the Smalltalk platform, both an advantage for obvious reasons, yet a big disadvantage for this reason, from my point of view: I have to be familiar with Smalltalk BEFORE I can even approach the CMS. I don't mean familiar with the finer details and vast libraries, I mean familiar with the main screen and how to simple navigate, what the concepts are, the terminologies etc etc etc etc. NO other CMS requires this as obviously as Pier. The Smalltalk interface is NOT intuitive. I am not spoon feed everything. I have to research and digest and understand and grow to be able to do anything here. Yes, there are many simple concepts, however my experience was, upon seeing the Smalltalk environment in its totality, was to be completely lost.
3. Every other CMS like Wordpress, Concrete 5, Joomla are designed to present a user interface, not a programmer interface. Hence they are attractive to users immediately, in general. Yes a programmer can delve in and do things, but a user can get things they want done, point and click. (Although some of the interfaces can be overwhelming with navigations etc, also).
If you want a SmallTalk CMS that is Amazingly Attractive to End users and Programmers, this would be a good start for me:
Provide a USER interface that can be used to quickly produce publishable content (a lot of work, as many have pointed out, yet achieved by many other CMS projects)
Provide an underlying Programmer interface that gives simple and powerful access to the framework to allow extension and manipulation of the system (already there)
Identify the STRENGTHS of smalltalk, LEVERAGE these and present these, in a simple and meaningful way, to End USERS and programmers, to create a CMS with capabilities that others cannot match easily and that is Attractive because of its inherent nature and abilities.
Provide Tutorials, Video How-To's and Documentation from Within the CMS. This is were I am wondering how to do things, this should be were I find the answers also.
-- Janko Mivšek Aida/Web Smalltalk Web Application Server http://www.aidaweb.si