From: "Eric Laffoon"
To: mjb
Subject: Re: Quanta feature request : One thing that concerns me is
Date: Wed, 20 Oct 2004 17:41:08 -0700
On Wednesday 20 October 2004 03:10 am, you wrote:
> One thing that concerns me is that both Quanta plus and nvu seem to include
> the site manager as part of the html editor. It would seem more logical
to
> me to have the site manager start up the appropriate editor for the file
> concerned (html, png, svg, etc.) This would allow, just one example,
> graphical navigation elements to be generated automatically.
>
> If not, I have written a small program to help me manage my website, see
> here:
> http://sourceforge.net/projects/kontent/
> This does some simple things like generating index, Table of contents,
RSS
> feeds. But I don't think I could extend it to support Templates, libraries,
> etc. without hooks into an editor such as Quanta plus. Is there any way
> that I could do this?
> I have put some ideas here: duplicateInformation/
>
> Martin
I'm on the road right now and really tired. Looking at your notes it looks
like there is probably some duplication and conflict with some of our
approaches as well as incorrect assumptions. For instance...
- using <?php include("myfile.html") ?> is easy, not a substantial
performance
hit on almost any server configuration and widely available. SSI is also less
capable and has security issues.
- Preview of dynamic pages is possible through Quanta's project preview function.
- Dreamweaver's templating approach is a lame HTML only solution that seriously
lacks genuine dynamism.
(BTW using Quanta binary/linking templates with pre and post strings making
a
PHP include makes it possible to drag the file creating the include string
and if you have the templates folder uploaded this is a live solution.)
My current objective is to develop the object template architecture. This will
be the objectification of design elements including
- site
- logical groups
- file system groups
- style and layout elements
- page containers
- interaction rules and more.
What you're looking at is that there might be some error prone duplication.
That's old news for me using dynamic page creation in an object oriented
design, but it has drawbacks. The better solution is to offload some of that
dynamism in the design that can be static into interactive design elements.
Why deal with simple repetition as compared to identifying massive
duplication in similarities and repetitive design operations? My objective is
to retain maximal conformance to standards, minimal constraints to language
and design model and optimal modeling and perspective to address the design
organically at the conceptual level. It's much more interesting, to me
anyway. ;-)
As far as interacting with Quanta that is easily done with DCOP. You'll find
our custom features in the WindowManagerIf stub (open kdcop) as well as what
we inherit from the Kate part. If you need a feature that is not there the
submit a patch or a request and we will review and most likely add it.
You're also welcome to join our developer mailing list.
--
Eric Laffoon - Quanta+ Team Leader