[Zope] Wysiwyg and the merits of a webinterface - some considerations

[Rik Hoekstra]

Once in a while the subject of wysiwyg comes up on the list, as it did in
the last few days. TO summarize the discussion as I understand it:
The main problem is that people want a wysiwyg front end for their Zope
database/web environment. On first consideration this seems to be something
very desirable especially for end users. The problem of content management
in web applications is present in other web application servers as well.
Therefore various wysiwyg environments have their own solutions for this
problem. Just some examples I happen to be acquainted with:
- dreamweaver makes a difference between editable zones and ineditable zones
in html;
- homesite can be taught to program html-ish extensions (CFML, ASP, dtml
should not be to much of a problem) and
- Frontpage does this a solution of the infamous mix of client and
serverside elements (which results in an inpenetrable and unmaintainable
soup)
The wysiwyg approach also seems to have the inevitable consequence that all
of these editors mangle your html in an inexcusable way - so what you get
may not at all be what you want.
There may be other examples which do, but I am not aware of them.

Zope has some inherent features that make these solutions not adequate, as
Michael Bernstein (I believe) pointed out. They have to do with the
difference between rendered documents and source code. This is further
complicated by the separation of code of and layout as a result of which al
templates and logic tend to be in different documents than where actual
textual content is managed.

I have been contemplating this issue for some time now, because it is
crucial in an academic environment in which all sorts of people with all
sorts of abilities (not just designers but also 'just' students and teachers
and secretaries) are going to be giving input to a website. Considering all
I have come to the conclusion that a webinterface will be the way to go, at
least for me.

My considerations:
- many students are using hotmail. They complain, but that is because of
slowness and ads. The interface, even if it's nothing special, gives them no
problems.
- I have been looking closely at some web based learning frameworks lately
(because I am building one in Zope). They all promise a complete management
system for courses and learning material. Some are shareware or freeware and
some are very expensive solutions. They _all_ have web based interfaces, and
it seems to be no problem at all for teachers. SOme of them are difficult to
use, but that's because of their closed nature and their bad organization
(this in contrast to Zope).
- browsers offer a familiar environment for almost anyone. They do not have
to learn another interface if they are editing through the web
- users/content managers only _have_ to edit content and not need to occupy
themselves with other issues, which is actually a relief for many of them.
Zope has the added advantage that it is very agnostic in the integration of
file types (by which pdf, msword and powerpoint can be uploaded just as
easily as web pages)

The only issue at the moment is that the current management interface (while
it is a pleasure to work with for developers) is not at all useful for
non-developers.

All taken together I do not thing there will be a solution in the direction
of wysiwyg editors.

Instead I would plea for the development of a toolkit for end user web-based
editing environments, as I believe many of us are developing them at the
moment. Is anyone interested? Ideas? Comments?

Rik Hoekstra