Hi
First of all, thanks a lot for all the responses to my initial question. This is the one reason why I could maybe try in the future to adapt to zikula: seeing that there are some very enthusiastic people using part of their time trying to support other people. So thanks a lot
In what respects to the subject, I think that you don't really see where our problem is. You know the zikula code and you know that it is much better now that it was in postnuke (at least, you like it better now). You appreciate all the power in the way thinks are programmed now... I would say that you see it from the "IT" point of view, I mean, it's better programmed, the code is beautiful, all the power of OO programming is being used now, coding and presentation are well separated... that stuff.
But most people don't really care about that. They care about how to use it. Actually, most people that use a
CMS don't use it because of how well programmed it is, but because it makes life easier. Main points are:
- Is it safe?
- Is it well supported?
- Is there a community or a business behind it so that I can count of new versions, security patches and those things? (meaning that I will be able to use it for a long time and the initial effort is going to be worth)
- Is it flexible and easy to use and configure?
- How much I can customize it?
- How many third party extensions are available?
- May integrate my own developments into it?
All of this, with a learning curve as short as possible.
In this case I don't doubt that Zikula code is more powerful now (I trust you). But, trust me, I don't really care very much. The problem is that I need to learn a lot of things if I want to make, for instance, a simple module that shows a list with my laboratory staff.
The point is that
CMS's are never perfect. People with a lot of time to invest in web programming don't really need a
CMS (you can always program your web projects without using one).
In my case, I work for a science lab and my main job is NOT web programming so only a little of my residual time is dedicated to that. We don't have the money to invest in hiring people for that (not to say hiring an external zikula proffesional to do it). I maintain a
multi-site postnuke installation for several different projects. I don't have time now to learn the details of zikula programming, learn Xanthia templating, reprogram all the modules I have being doing up to now in a different fashion (not compatible with zikula), change all the
Wiki content so that I can use a scribite editing from now on... I wish I have time in the future, but I can't promise.
You say that it's ok, that I can continue using postnuke. That's true, but that is the point: I can't use zikula and I have to be stuck to a software that is not longer maintained when I had chosen it because of the large community behind it (thinking that the project would be continued for long)
In what respects to that comment about that all software forks in some time of their lifes, as postnuke was a fork from
PHP-nuke, I actually think that zikula is a fork from postnuke. It is not postnuke as it doesn't follow any more the same philosophy than postnuke and some (or most, I can't say) postnuke installations and previous postnuke modules don't work with zikula.
The point is that this change could be a great decision by you (we will see it in the future). But right now it is a big problem for many of us.
When I first started this conversation I was really hoping that I hadn't understood the situation correctly and that there was a way to continue using the "old-fashioned" postnuke modules and themes inside zikula. Now that I see that there is not such a way, I just would like that you understand why that is a problem for, at least, some of us.
