[Typo3-dev] I don't want to fork!

[Kasper Skårhøj]

Hi Eric and everyone else,

Thanks for discussing this (also thanks for the kind words in another mail in 
this thread).

On the roadmap you see something about "Portal features" planned for version 
5.0 of TYPO3. Actually I think the version 5.0 ambitions can be divided in 
two:
- Some are crazy about inner architecture, refactoring etc. This is not going 
to provide new features but rather new possibilities for features.
- Some are crazy about frontend cross-extension integration - that is you :-)

I have also been concerned for a while that we need:
- to define best practices for creating frontend output, taking all modern 
needs into account (best-practice templating, XHTML, Accessibility)
- to identify typical functionality scenarios where extensions ought to work 
together but currently doesn't, then provide definitions of APIs/Standards 
that extensions can adhere to and in the long term secure TYPO3 as a good 
portal solution with great integration between "components" (what we call 
plugins).

I'm actually mostly a "backend geek" in TYPO3 and feel pretty inferior in 
terms of frontend functionality; I simply haven't kept up with current 
practices because I produce TYPO3 everyday, not websites anymore. Further, I 
have no experience with eg. postNuke and other portal frameworks from which I 
think we can learn a lot in terms of how functionality interoperates.

A final concern I have is this: When we want backend functionality available 
for frontend users. This need seems to come much closer when you want more 
portal features. There are lots of hacks possible but the real way of doing 
it relies on redesigns in the core and I'm not even sure that version 5.0 
will provide that. Even if it does it means we can only base our work on that 
for the version after 5.0. So it seams we have to work mostly on defining 
what we need and make a interim implementation which still leaves something 
to wish for.

I think it could be great to form a team for this and at least Elmar seems to 
be ready right away. I would like to join that team and support the work. The 
only thing is that I'm not quite sure if it is the right time for me yet; 
Before I will be able to fully work on this topic with all my mind I will 
have to get past version 4.0 and 4.5 releases first. This doesn't mean the 
discussions can't begin already, but the perspective for some final output 
will be summer 2006 I guess.

Finally,