[BlueBream] Simple Interface, Sophisticated Internals

Christopher Lozinski lozinski at specialtyjobmarkets.com
Thu Mar 22 16:42:06 UTC 2012


Two days ago Ilshad Khabibullin was kind enough to skype me. Then we
exchange some emails.  Here how we agreed to disagree. 

On 3/22/12 10:34 AM, Ilshad Khabibullin wrote:

(and I edited) 
> Programming Open Source libraries and frameworks is not charity or
> philanthropy. Never. It can't be charity. Such activity is successful
> only when its developers are using it themselves. In other words, the developers
> (advanced, we suppose) need to be eating what they are cooking. If the platform was
> dead then it means its developers are not eating their dish.
>
> If you want to build a great platform, never build it just because you want to.  In any case such a platform will die. And we have seen lots of such platforms in the industry.  Build it because you need to use it yourself.  
>
> Here is my thought: caring about newcomers is a bad reason to
> build a platform. BlueBream is dead not because it's too complex for
> newcomers. Vice versa: it was dead because it does not help advanced
> users.

I think these are all great points, and I do understand where you are coming from,  but I beg to differ.
You are understandably focused on the developer's needs.  I am more focused on the customer's needs.
(Actually in this case I am also a developer looking for a TTW development environment.  But that is a tiny tiny niche. )

I pointed out that marvelous technologies, like Google and the iPod have
very simple interfaces.  That to bring in the users we need a simple
interface on BlueBream.  He is talking about where the technology
should go, I was talking about where the marketing should go.  I think
we were not so much disagreeing, as we were talking about different
things.  We both love ZODB, schemas, and other BlueBream features.   I
think if we get the marketing right, then more people will be adding big
ideas into BlueBream.

And where do I think the marketing should go?  Well Ilshad had a great
question.  "What is your goal? He asked.   I said to grow the BlueBream
market.  On further discussion we made it more specific.  To help
frustrated Plone developers  migrate over to BlueBream.   My personal
theory is that I do not have the time and effort to write all the
BlueBream libraries that I need, but if we can just bring over a small
percentage of the Plone community, all things that need to get polished,
will get polished.

Thank you Ilshad for focusing me on the goals  If that is our goal, the
first BlueBream demo should be a simple CMS system.  That is
what ZTFY.org.   Different users get their accounts, they can add
content types.  Then they all get displayed in a single folder per
content type.  Perfect.  That is what the market calls for.

It works for me as well.  While I want a simple TTW development system,
the big market is for a Plone replacement.  A simple CMS will bring over
a bunch of those developers.  It looks like ZTFY.org is perfectly
positioned.  And as for my needs, all I have to do is add in
acquisition, python scripts, and DTML, and I am a happy man.

And having installed and tried ZTFY, I still like it.  It looks like a great basis for the apps I want to build. I just need a resume object!


--
Regards
Christopher Lozinski

Check out my iPhone apps TextFaster and EmailFasterhttp://textfaster.com

Expect a paradigm shift.http://MyHDL.org



>


-- 
Regards
Christopher Lozinski

Check out my iPhone apps TextFaster and EmailFaster
http://textfaster.com

Expect a paradigm shift.
http://MyHDL.org



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