Charlie’s Enemy
At this stage in the life of Charlie, I am following the teachings of Getting Real. The book advises that a new software application should have an enemy. The book states, “Sometimes the best way to know what your app should be is to know what it shouldn’t be.”
Throughout this weblog I have picked on DotNetNuke like it was a snot-nosed little kid who put his pants on backwards. Technically, DotNetNuke is a cleverly architected application that many, many developers use to earn good income. Moreover, DotNetNuke will forever be more advanced than Charlie could ever be. If anything, Charlie will be the 90-pound weakling who will have sand kicked in its face by the mighty DotNetNuke. So why do I use DotNetNuke as Charlie’s stated enemy?
The reason I dislike DotNetNuke so much is that it is software created by developers for developers. That is wrong. We developers, we’re just middlemen. Our task is to provide a medium through which a website owner can talk to its audience (which may be friends, business partners, customers, or others). A website framework should target one or both of those principals—the owner or its audience—and not the middleman.
To provide an example, have a look at the following web address:
www.DotNetNuke.com/About/ProjectOwner/tabid/822/Default.aspx
That web address is clearly created by developer for developers. It has crap in the address that is designed to support developers, but that penalizes the website’s owner and the website’s audience. Such a long address cannot be added to the owner’s marketing material, and cannot be easily described over the phone. Such a long address cannot be easily typed by a visitor. If the software was created for website owners and its audience, that sort of crap would never find its way into the software.
If a gimmick comes out of Microsoft, it is immediately added to DotNetNuke. A Data Access Application Block was released by Microsoft and—slap!—in it goes to DotNetNuke. The new concept of Themes was released by Microsoft and—bang!—in it goes to DotNetNuke. What does a website owner care if the site is styled by CSS, a Theme, or a monkey with a paintbrush? The only reason this stuff goes into DotNetNuke is to appease developers; it is software created by developers for developers. To my mind, a feature should be added to an website application only if it adds value to the website’s owner or the website’s audience.
So Charlie has found its enemy.
by Alister Jones | Next up: Love the Little Guys →
----
Post a Comment