[TYPO3-doc] TypoScript reference

[Francois Suter]

Hi,

> why not keep it just that simple?:
> there are types and there are properties.
> a type can have several properties which have a type theirself.
> a type can extend another type.
> this concept is known by each OOP programmer. we used this format to
> structure the tsref as simple xml file, and i think it works quite well.
> For someone who does extension programming the difference between
> "functions" and "objects" might be useful, for a extension integrator,
> or a TYPO3 newbie however, this is definitely confusing.

I don't quite agree with that. There's a very real difference between 
functions, objects and types and I think this difference must be 
preserved. TypoScript 2.0 as it was developed for TYPO3 v5 more closely 
resembles OO-style, but that's not the case with current TS and I think 
it's not a good idea to "force" that resemblance.

That being said, I think a good interface to the online TSref can hide 
that complexity from the user, and maybe even make it nearly intuitive.

My impression is that when people start out with TS they first look at 
objects, because that's really what you build your site with. So people 
would come to the online ref and see a list of object. They click on one 
and get to a page where all the properties of the object are listed. Now 
they can click on any property's type (be it a data type or a function) 
and get to these details, so it's kind of transparent.

Furthermore let's not forget that we are talking about a reference and 
not a tutorial. I can understand the confusion you felt sometimes, but I 
think they could have been addressed with a good tutorial. We are not 
without resources here, but they need to be more prominent. First of all 
there's the excellent "TypoScript in 45 minutes" tutorial, which should 
really be made into an official tutorial. Then there's Kasper 
"TypoScript by Example" tutorial, which could be refreshed and be like 
an advanced tutorial following up on "TS in 45 minutes". This is sliding 
off-topic now, but what I mean is that people should be educated first 
using tutorials (and the main issue is to make these tutorials more 
visible) and then they should understand the concepts of TS, and thus 
there's no need to hide too much in the reference, which could actually 
hamper deeper comprehension of TS IMO.

Cheers

-- 

Francois Suter
Cobweb Development Sarl - http://www.cobweb.ch