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The vastness of TYPO3
Have you ever taken a step back and really considered the huge feature set that TYPO3 offers? Sometimes just thinking about it makes me dizzy...
I've been involved with TYPO3 for about 4 years now, which is about the time I normally start feeling bored about a piece of software (if not earlier) because I've explored its remotest corners and there's nothing new or exciting about it. To my own amazement this isn't happening with TYPO3. The main reason is that I still discover new stuff, day after day. And there's not just the core, but also all the extensions. This serendipity keeps me going and going (like the energizer bunny).
However this begs the following question: when can you consider yourself a TYPO3 specialist? Nowadays everyone agrees that there are no "web specialists" anymore. Web sites have become more and more sophisticated and generally imply the collaboration of several people with a variety of skills (design, communication, information architecture, HTML and CSS, programming, etc.). In some way the same goes for TYPO3. How much do you know about TypoScript, TCA, TCEMAIN, TCEFORMS? Workspaces, multiple languages, multiple domains, external authentication services? And what about some of the most common extensions: news, indexed search and its crawler, RealURL, TemplaVoilà, front end user registration, direct mail? It makes your head spin, doesn't it?
If you take the half-empty-glass point of view, this is cause for despair. You can think that TYPO3 is over-complicated, its learning curve too steep and that you will never master the beast. When you start using TYPO3 you generally go through such a phase of despair.
But then you might also consider the glass as being half full. TYPO3 is so powerful that you can pretty much do whatever kind of web site you want with it. It's true that there is a lot to learn, but that doesn't prevent you from starting to do stuff. It just means that you will probably not do them in an optimal way but will learn with time how to make them better. All things considered I don't do now web sites that are that much more complicated than 3 years ago. It's just that the tasks seem less daunting, if not downright easy.
So yes, four years on and I'm still amazed by the depths of TYPO3. Are you too?
comments
November 15, 2007
11:36
I think that changes occur ofter because of the missing and by that itching feeling. therefore kaspers scratch your own itch was the most inspiring speach i ever heard.
November 17, 2007
19:18
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I'm 120% behind you for that. I'm also on the half full side. I'm still excited 4 years after doing my first T3 site. When I do demo I get people's attention because they still see sparks in my eyes.
I'm also thrilled by the adoption of TYPO3 at Québec's Government which continue to grow since Kasper made his speech in 2004.
And with the openness of the Core List, it's get even bigger in term of features. I'm curious if Stucki will recognize TYPO3 once he get back from his 2 months of vacation...
Future looks bright!