[Grok-dev] Re: On CMS's in Grok

[Martijn Faassen]

Hey,

Martin Aspeli wrote:
[snip]
> To start with a controversial statement:
> 
>  Don't build a Grok CMS.
> 
> Or the corollary:
> 
>  Don't try to compete with Plone.

I don't really think Martin and I are disagreeing so much in the 
details, but I'll still turn it around:

   Do build CMSes with Grok.

and also:

   Compete with Plone if you want to.

Now about what would be *smart* to do. If I were to write a new 
Grok-based CMS I'd not attempt a head-on competition with any big 
feature-rich CMS such as Plone right away. I can see two routes to 
building a new CMS based on Grok: either select some set of features you 
want to clone exactly in an existing CMS (so you don't have to do any UI 
design and only focus on getting the underlying bits nicer), or focus on 
different areas than an existing CMS.

That's now. Over time, I hope we'll see more feature-rich CMSes based on 
Grok however. In 2, 3, 5 years time, I certainly hope we'll have 
Grok-based CMSes that are competing with Plone and other systems, at 
least in some respects. We could, for instance, run the Grok site on 
one. :)

I don't think someone should feel guilty about competing with Plone: 
"Please don't hurt the giant feature-rich Plone that has a huge active 
community" doesn't really sound very convincing. Besides, I don't think 
such an effort *would* hurt Plone. For the reason already mentioned: 
Plone can adapt this technology itself. And even if people were to jump 
ship from Plone to a new CMS based on Grok, they'd have the easiest time 
learning the new system, as much of the underlying technology will be 
familiar.

All this is entirely theoretical at this stage. But since one of the 
things I want to do with Grok is build CMS-like applications, I can 
hardly agree with Martin's assertion not to build CMSes with Grok. Let's 
by all means build a couple. Let us know how it goes, so we can see how 
Grok could be improved to support your efforts better.

Regards,

Martijn