[TYPO3-dev] Moving the topic of the discussion a little bit -- Based of thread "Change roadmap..."

[JoH]

> As a result all old extensions must be rewritten to use the new API.

Thanx - I forgot this fact and that it is a perfect reason why you should
NOT change the templating principles of TYPO3.

> So why not simply switch to API and forget all about this inflexible
> marker stuff?

Very easy: Because 10thousands of people in the world are doing it this way.
What really annoys me ist the way how some of the developers are going to
replace things with so called "standards" instead of improving the existing
things to become "standards" as well.
"TypoScript sucks - it has to be replaced with XML"
"Hooks are crap - we need a registry"
"Marker based templating is uncool - we need smarty"
"Look, Mom, Puma shoes are ugly - all the other kids have got Nikes"

A wide spread standard that is available for a big percentage of the www is
Flash.
Should we write our backend in Action Script now?

After all there is no real "standard" and you should always stick to the
solution that serves your needs best.
One of these needs is: My sites should be working properly after an update
without too many hassles.
Another one is: I learned the TYPO3 way of doing things and invested a lot
of time and money in it. So I would like to keep as much of it as possible.
And then there is: The current way of doing things with TYPO3 is working
fine but could be improved in different ways.

If you kick the "inflexible marker stuff" and replace it with smarty you
will lose more than you win, since many people won't be willing to upgrade
to a version that is ignoring all the stuff they have been learning over the
years.
So why not improve the way things are done in TYPO3 now and implement some
nice little functions that will give you not just a smarty like templating
but maybe some additional features too?
Would you kick Templa Voila too in favor of smarty? What about all the
people that believed in the Slogan "Futuristic Template Building"?

The major problem is that most developers seem to forget the people that
made TYPO3 such a big success.
These people are called "users" and most of them really don't care, if the
technique behind the scenes is a "standard" or not.
They just want their tool to be working as expected and what they really
don't like are changes in the way things have to be done.
Usually you don't develop stuff just to put it into a museum of "brilliant
examples for the use of standards" - you develop it to give people something
they can use easily.

So my advice is: Improve existing stuff instead of replacing it with
something else. Maybe add new functionalities but keep the old ones wherever
possible.
And if you want to change things, you should ask users and not developers
about the preferable solution else TYPO3 might die in elegancy ("in
Schönheit sterben")
This is why I sent this one in CC to the marketing list as well.

Joey

-- 
Wenn man keine Ahnung hat: Einfach mal Fresse halten!
(If you have no clues: simply shut your knob sometimes!)
Dieter Nuhr, German comedian
openBC: http://www.cybercraft.de