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I think the post speaks much more generally to why CMS's suck in general. I've developed sites using Drupal and reviewed many many others when I was deciding wh

I think the post speaks much more generally to why CMS's suck in general. I've developed sites using Drupal and reviewed many many others when I was deciding what to use. Most of the weaknesses of Drupal are shared by all other CMS's. The author's alternative is to custom code a solution using Rails. (or some other framework) That way, you don't have to worry about all the cruft that goes into a CMS codebase to make it flexible and support everyone's needs. All that said, I still don't think Drupal sucks. It can definitely be frustrating to use and configure, but in a situation where you need to have laypeople or relative laypeople making changes to a site and its functionality, beyond merely adding and editing content, its the best option.

mechanical_fish 17y ago
The author's alternative is to custom code a solution using Rails. (or some other framework) This reminds me of an old Steve Martin routine: "How can [you] be a millionaire... and never pay taxes? First.. get a million dollars." If you've got your hands on a developer who is capable of custom-coding your solution in Rails within your timeframe, and you can afford to pay them to do it, and to pay them to maintain and augment it, and to cajole them into writing extensive documentation (they have, after all, built a custom solution, so if you want to read the manual they have to write the manual), and to recruit and pay a series of equally-talented successors to replace them when they get bored, and to pay a security auditor to look for the custom-built security holes in their custom-built code -- then, yeah, you don't have a problem. It must be nice to be you. But when, as a Drupal consultant, I would suggest to my more... imaginative prospective clients that their proposed projects were outside Drupal's sweet spot and that they should instead look for a Rails developer, it tended to stun them into silence. It was like suggesting that they recruit and hire a brain surgeon. People are desperate to find halfway-competent Drupal developers -- and, though it does have a learning curve like the face of El Capitan, Drupal is much easier to pick up than Rails, unless you are already a Java developer. [1] Competent Rails developers are far harder to find. They're all too busy applying to YC, plotting to take over Java shops, or counting their profits. ;) [2] --- [1] To get started in Drupal, you don't necessarily need to know what "OO" means. You don't need to know what MVC means. You don't need to know what REST is. You don't need to know what "routing" means. You don't need to know what SQL is or write a single migration. You don't necessarily need to use the command line, or a text editor, or -- god help us -- a version control system. Drupal is written in PHP, but you don't necessarily need to know any PHP. Of course, to the extent that you don't know any of these things, you are going to hit the wall someday, perhaps painfully. But at least you won't find yourself staring at a blinking cursor on day one, wondering how to start your application. [2] And if you hire an incompetent Rails developer, you will find yourself wishing that you'd simply set a pile of dollar bills on fire.

mechanical_fish 17y ago

The author's alternative is to custom code a solution using Rails. (or some other framework) This reminds me of an old Steve Martin routine: "How can [you] be a millionaire... and never pay taxes? First.. get a million dollars." If you've got your hands on a developer who is capable of custom-coding your solution in Rails within your timeframe, and you can afford to pay them to do it, and to pay them to maintain and augment it, and to cajole them into writing extensive documentation (they have, after all, built a custom solution, so if you want to read the manual they have to write the manual), and to recruit and pay a series of equally-talented successors to replace them when they get bored, and to pay a security auditor to look for the custom-built security holes in their custom-built code -- then, yeah, you don't have a problem. It must be nice to be you. But when, as a Drupal consultant, I would suggest to my more... imaginative prospective clients that their proposed projects were outside Drupal's sweet spot and that they should instead look for a Rails developer, it tended to stun them into silence. It was like suggesting that they recruit and hire a brain surgeon. People are desperate to find halfway-competent Drupal developers -- and, though it does have a learning curve like the face of El Capitan, Drupal is much easier to pick up than Rails, unless you are already a Java developer. [1] Competent Rails developers are far harder to find. They're all too busy applying to YC, plotting to take over Java shops, or counting their profits. ;) [2] --- [1] To get started in Drupal, you don't necessarily need to know what "OO" means. You don't need to know what MVC means. You don't need to know what REST is. You don't need to know what "routing" means. You don't need to know what SQL is or write a single migration. You don't necessarily need to use the command line, or a text editor, or -- god help us -- a version control system. Drupal is written in PHP, but you don't necessarily need to know any PHP. Of course, to the extent that you don't know any of these things, you are going to hit the wall someday, perhaps painfully. But at least you won't find yourself staring at a blinking cursor on day one, wondering how to start your application. [2] And if you hire an incompetent Rails developer, you will find yourself wishing that you'd simply set a pile of dollar bills on fire.