[TYPO3-hci] The Constant Triptichon

[Alex Heizer]

Quentin Dewhurst wrote:
>
> Why not have the backend truly reflect the front end though?
My question would be: why would anyone ever want this? You already have 
the FE editing.
> - this doesnt 
> have to be uber difficult or tricky to configure via the backend either - 
> the front end template could be interpreted via the backend automatically, 
> displaying a visual representation to the user.
>   
So how would you propose, with this method, that documentation be 
created? People already complain about TYPO3's documentation, having a 
nonstandard editing interface would make it impossible to create 
documentation for anything other than "theoretical" editing or on a 
site-by-site basis. Removing a standard "every installation gets this 
interface" interface in place of one that changes with every site would 
mean the best we could ever hope for out of documentation would be 
sketchy details about how "this element may be here, or there, please 
consult your developer for more specifics regarding your site." All of a 
sudden you take the burden of documentation off the community and place 
it squarely on each individual developer for even basic editing tasks 
such as "Create a new content element". Even adding TV created new 
standardization issues with documenting TYPO3 as a system, and placed a 
lot of the work on each site developer.

Don't get me wrong, I think the ideas are cool, and the technology is 
cool. I loved it when Netscape started letting you customize your own 
portal pages with drag and drop years ago. But for making the system 
usable and supportable for tens of thousands of end-users, all of which 
need to be trained at some time and many of whom only have basic 
computer skills, having a standard interface for all means usability. 
Having tens of thousands of custom one-off interfaces introduces so many 
supportability and maintainability issues that it's no wonder Microsoft 
may change the look of Windows, or refine some features, or add new 
features, but since 1995 the interface hasn't changed at all and they 
don't seem to be suffering from a lack of adoption.

Cheers,
Alex

> Cheers, Quentin.
>