Shuttle Developments 01
Okay, so a couple of days ago I contacted a certain somebody (Michael) to see if they wanted to join in the development of ‘Shuttle’ after I saw this post. It took a couple of days but I can proudly announce the addition of one Michael Heilemann to the Shuttle Development Team. So the team is Chris, Joshua, Michael and myself. That’s 2 designers and 2 coders.
So what does this mean? It means several things. It means the development will actually run more smoothly and probably a lot faster, as a team of 4 people in COMPLETELY different countries work on a project. It means the design and code will be the sum of many, as all open source code is.
This is what I love about the Wordpress community. It’s an actual community, that are trying to make the blogging experience that much better. That’s what open source is all about after all, people sharing and contributing to something bigger and better.
This also means that the name Shuttle and everything else might/probably will change. Hey I’m completely flexible when it comes to this sort of thing, nothing I do in terms of graphics goes to waste, I always find some way to use them. It’ll be an interesting experience if nothing else, because we’re going to make the backend of WP the best blogging backend currently available. There will be no reason why anyone shouldn’t fall over themselves to try and have Wordpress as their standard software of choice.
Bold words? Maybe, it’s just I know who’s got my back.
In the meantime research is in order. I’ll ask the regulars over here, to say what they think about the current backend of wordpress, what they like and what they don’t. The guys will probably do the same thing on their blogs.
Nice
1/2/2005
As a user of WP and M.Heilemann’s Kubrick what more can one say except: Godspeed!
1/2/2005
*sigh*
Good luck with your fork.
1/2/2005
Matty I’ve sent you an e-mail to explain that this isn’t a fork. No way is it a fork. I think it’s important to clarify that, because I read a comment after Michael’s post that said the same thing.
1/2/2005
Matt,
Yeah I think it is important as well that people understand that we are not forking the code. I would not be involved with this if it were. I am commited to the development of the main project as I hope I have proven in the past.
For me, this is more of an extension of my Admin UI redesign project. I had always had the intention of going back and doing something like this, but I was always side-tracked.
So yeah, I think that is enough for now from me.
2/2/2005
Groovy, feel free to CC me on any conversations you’d like input on.
2/2/2005
Wow, this is music to my ears. Thank god someone else agrees on this.
I would say (and have many times) that the back end of wordpress, not to mention the lack of visual clarity other aspects of things wordpress, say, compared to almost all things MT, is WP’s biggest liability going forward. A few other threads worth noting where this has been discussed:
Usability in the WordPress Admin Interface
About WordPress, Usability, and OpenSource Development
What those long threads refer to (in a messy kind of way) is that it’s possible that current “typical” WordPress users/developers don’t care all that much about what the back end looks like as long as there’s a button that triggers a piece of code that does what they want, or, they can build a plugin to do it.
Backing up far enough (50,000 feet, say) to see the whole thing, if that’s possible, may produce a result that rubs enough of the core the wrong way so that it forks the project, which would probably be a shame as there’s only so much energy to go around.
To put is more simply: the opensource model makes it easy to change things on one level, and more difficult to change things on others (witness Kubrick, and maybe your improved admin UI).
If I’m gonna stick with WP for the longest haul, what you’re talking about here is essential for me; I get sick every time I work and look in the back end of WP; its so ugly and disorganized and so developmental looking.
Anyway, sorry to rant on, but I’ll be looking fowared to hearing about this as it matures. Otherwise, I’m considering moving to MT where the admin UI is clean and very well designed.
2/2/2005
Nothing could possibly make me move back to MT. Nothing. It was nice to use for the 2 short months, however it just doesn’t even compare to WP. Not even close, and the reason is simple, the community around WP will always support it and bring it forward. From a plethora of themes, to plugins to the excellent people on the boards, etc etc.
It’s a community thing Richard, and that’s what makes WP even more special. You can contribute to the software in a positive way, and the whole is the addition of 100s of people doing little things here and there. Sure it takes a bit longer sometimes, but when it gets done, it’s twice as fast, and twice as good ^_^.
3/2/2005