Drupal Verdict Not In
Well I did manage to solve the problems I encountered with Drupal by a complete reinstall. I did this one with a fresh and up-to-date version from drupal.org rather than use the Fantastico version (they never seem to be sufficiently up-to-date unfortunately).
If you detect a somewhat flatter tone to this post than might be expected given that the problem has resolved, you are quite right. Very perceptive, well done.
I am not convinced that Drupal actually offers as useful an application as they describe. There appears to be plenty of power (at least potentially) but it's pretty well buried beneath a ton of unnecessary overhead in two critical areas.
I get the feeling that some developers treat their work as a tad too precious. The open source orientation may be a thin veneer for some.
The point to a CMS is that it should robustly, safely manage data (information really) and facilitate its publication. It's that facilitation that causes some problems with Drupal. It is actually a quite totuous affair to get anything set up and productive.
The small core and many addon package rubric works well in theory and practice. Normally! In this case it results in an interminable collection of sections and pages and one is always left wondering how many pages must be visited to set something up. Then, to actually get something published, again, many steps, many pages. What a pain. Perhaps this improves with practice, but it currently reflects very poor design.
I am also unimpressed with the W3C standards non-compliance encountered with Drupal. This is pretty-well unforgivable.
Now it may sound as though the verdict is indeed in. Not so. The fact is I need to find a suitable replacement before I can simply dump Drupal. I think a little more searching may actually be worthwhile.
Stay tuned.
If you detect a somewhat flatter tone to this post than might be expected given that the problem has resolved, you are quite right. Very perceptive, well done.
I am not convinced that Drupal actually offers as useful an application as they describe. There appears to be plenty of power (at least potentially) but it's pretty well buried beneath a ton of unnecessary overhead in two critical areas.
- wastefully steep learning curve due to pretty bad documentation
- tortuous and cumbersome administration that defies sensible usability
I get the feeling that some developers treat their work as a tad too precious. The open source orientation may be a thin veneer for some.
The point to a CMS is that it should robustly, safely manage data (information really) and facilitate its publication. It's that facilitation that causes some problems with Drupal. It is actually a quite totuous affair to get anything set up and productive.
The small core and many addon package rubric works well in theory and practice. Normally! In this case it results in an interminable collection of sections and pages and one is always left wondering how many pages must be visited to set something up. Then, to actually get something published, again, many steps, many pages. What a pain. Perhaps this improves with practice, but it currently reflects very poor design.
I am also unimpressed with the W3C standards non-compliance encountered with Drupal. This is pretty-well unforgivable.
Now it may sound as though the verdict is indeed in. Not so. The fact is I need to find a suitable replacement before I can simply dump Drupal. I think a little more searching may actually be worthwhile.
Stay tuned.
posted by Dr Peter Tylee at
12:48 pm
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