Almost enough hype

[End User]

I saw this blurb for something called "Zenphoto", which is a semi-decent photo gallery script. But the ad copy itself was a work of art:"Zenphoto is an answer to lots of calls for an online gallery solution that just makes sense. After years of bloated software that does everything and your dishes, zenphoto just shows your photos, simply. It's got all the functionality and features you need, and nothing you don't. Where the old guys put in a bunch of modules and junk, we put a lot of thought. We hope you agree with our philosophy: simpler is better. Don't get us wrong though - zenphoto really does have everything you need for your online gallery, and you'll even stare in awe at some of the innovative innovations we innovated upon."Alright, look, there are already 573 gorjillion photo galleries out there, yours is unlikely to be so epic that we'll form a cult and start worshiping you, okay?"It's got all the functionality and features you need, and nothing you don't."I'm sorry, but those are two mutually impossible conditions. If it doesn't have features I don't need, chances are that someone else needs the missing features. And I'll bet all of my money and my firstborn child that it has features that *I* don't need. "Where the old guys put in a bunch of modules and junk, we put a lot of thought."Yeah, us "old guys" just go crammin' all sorts of "modules and junk" into everything we build. The people that use all those "modules and junk" sometimes refer to them as "features". "We hope you agree with our philosophy: simpler is better."Sometimes simpler is better, sometimes not. Sometimes "simpler" just means you weren't able to code anything complex enough to be interesting. This is akin to the "Less is more" nonsense. Less isn't more. It's a just an idiotic meme that some stoned fool in marketing dreamed up. Honestly, if you people ever listened to yourselves, you'd shutup. "you'll even stare in awe at some of the innovative innovations we innovated upon."Yeah, those innovative innovations that got innovatively innovated on will no doubt cause me to stare in awe, because I've never seen a photo gallery that used AJAX before. Whoah, too exciting. I better go sit down and take my heart medication.

[Ingolme]

That's advertising for you.I do understand the concept they're trying to get to, though, as I also try to do it with my own applications: Making the applications as customizable as possible while keeping it simple and easy.

[23.12.2012]

The best solution, in my opinion, is to create a very basic application, which is easily and powerfully extensible. As an example, both Opera and Chrome have their developer tools built-in, which are basically just like Firefox's Firebug. But they're bloated and inefficient. Firefox, on the other hand, doesn't have anything built-in, Firebug is just a powerful plug-in, independently developed by someone. And the examples are, to use another marketing stereotype, unlimited.The plug-ins, which are functionalities developed by one who focused on that small thing, are what makes Firefox my browser of choice.

[jeffman]

Finding a satisfactory way to do that in a web environment does present challenges.Like, you could have a barebones JavaScript framework that comes with a whole bunch of modules. To add a module, just add a new script tag. You see lots of sites that do this sort of thing. 10-20 script tags all in a row, each one to add a different widget.On the other hand, as we know, documents load faster when the number of HTTP requests is kept down. Multiple script tags might be the easiest solution but maybe not the most efficient. On the other hand, a more efficient solution, like using PHP include directives to concatenate scripts, might intimidate developers who don't know their way around their servers. Might be more difficult to maintain, too. I haven't though about it a lot.tinyMCE does an interesting thing where you define exactly which features your RTE should have by specifying keywords in your element tag. That keeps the executing app as big or small as you want. I've noticed that on slower computers, fewer features means a more responsive RTE. That's a good thing.But you still have to download the entire codebase. That's wasteful.I'm blathering.

[wirehopper]

The best solution is the one that works.Works can include -Cost -Features -Technical skill required -Ease of use -PerformanceI have yet to encounter a single software solution which serves everyone who uses it well.Except Drupal - which has some ardent users that believe it solves everyone's problems, all the time. I'm not one of them.

[End User]

Except Drupal - which has some ardent users that believe it solves everyone's problems, all the time. I'm not one of them.

Drupal: "Yesterday's Technology Tomorrow!*"* Except for all the bit and pieces we still haven't been able to make work.

[locbtran]

The best solution is the one that works.Works can include -Cost -Features -Technical skill required -Ease of use -PerformanceI have yet to encounter a single software solution which serves everyone who uses it well.

Amen to that...