So, TG2 finally has a stable release. However, it's release has sadly come out to little fan fare as far as most of the web is concerned. I'm worried by the current state of advertising/marketing and documentation, that what there is available currently has very little appeal to the majority of web developers out there. For TG2 to make any real traction it's going to have to appear to be the best of breed web development environments. As far as I can tell the only folks currently interested are those of us who have previously been using TG1, are hard core python fans, or are already sold on the idea of distributed/modular development (WSGI). That unfortunately leaves Turbogears with a somewhat niche audience.
Django grew it's user base by advertising to people that it was "the best, easiest to learn and use web development platform" and "better than Ruby on Rails." Their community seems to still be growing at rapid rates, while I've seen hardly any difference in new users around here since TG2 went final. At the end of the day, the average web developer doesn't care what platform they're using, or how it works...they just want the quickest and easiest method to get what their site running and doing what they want. Currently, TG2 still has a good bit of a learning curve. And I'm sorry to burst anyone's bubbles, but we DO NOT in any way shape or form have "the best documented web development platform." And until it's retardedly easy for someone who has never programmed in Python, barely ever used the MVC model before, and knows nothing of command lines to jump in and make their first TG site in less than an hour, it's going to remain a niche audience. Beyond that our site is a bit of a joke currently. We're not even self hosting as far as I can tell. Now I know there's http://beta.turbogears.org out there, and I know folks are working on the Pages CMS. But we really should have had all that up before 2.0 went final. It's truely amazing how much a person will judge you're product simply on the the looks of your website alone, especially when the product is a web development platform. Furthermore, ToscaWidgets is dead in the water as far as I can tell and it's widget selection is sparse at best. It is absolutely imperative that TG have a full-featured widget toolkit built-in by default and it be just as well documented as any other aspect of the platform. TG1 had fairly good integration with MochiKit, but TG2's current stance appears to be you can either use this basic Tosca stuff someone threw together and then let stagnate for a year, or go out and find a "real" widget library (jQuery, Dojo, etc), but you'll have to figure out how to use it by yourself. And that is the exact opposite of the position we should be portraying to new users...if people want that situation, why not just use plain ol' Pylons? I hope I have not offended anyone here today, I'm just trying to tell it like it is. I implore you to not spend so much time on adding new features to 2.1 and focus on getting these core problems taken care of first and foremost. Please please please make 2.1 all about polish. I'd really love to talk to fellow developers and when I say I use Turbogears, they don't respond with a "huh? what's that?" --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TurboGears Trunk" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/turbogears-trunk?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
