On Sun, 2006-02-05 at 18:55 -0700, Michael Dorosh wrote:
A letter opener isn't a swizzle stick, but if it
works, why not...
From: Roger Chrisman
Could anyone who feels with conviction that Mediawiki is NOT a CMS,
please explain.
The problem that you have is that there is no concrete definition (the
CMS page on WP notwithstanding) of CMS. It's a general label that has
come to be applied to "that stuff that's non site-specific, and sits on
top of a Web server". Because so many people first hear the term in
connection with a specific CMS, they often come to expect that that
CMS's features are universally "CMSish".
It is often more valuable to discuss specific terminology for specific
tasks. For example, Vignette's StoryServer (now simply Vignette) was
based around a workflow publishing system. Workflow is a common element
of many CMSes, but not, for example, MediaWiki. Revision control is a
major part of MediaWiki, and of many other CMSes, but not all. The
feature list goes on.
MediaWiki *is* a CMS, but that does not mean that it provides that
facilities that everyone has come to expect of a CMS (nor, in all cases,
should it).
--
Aaron Sherman <ajs(a)ajs.com>
Senior Systems Engineer and Toolsmith
"We had some good machines, but they don't work no more." -Shriekback