Philosophy - adampatterson/Tentacle GitHub Wiki

FROM THE START

Software should work! It should work with little configuration. Tentacle will get you up and running in minutes. Install will require as few basic details as possible.

Every release of Tentacle will follow this philosophy or improve on it.

DESIGNING FOR OUR USERS

Users of Tentacle will be both technical and non. Things should just work without worrying about their browser version or what the server is running. It just needs to work!

If our users want something we will weight the pros and cons and move accordingly, If our users hate something then its out the door!

DESIGN DECISIONS AND NOT OPTIONS

The more options you give the more chances for screw ups you create. Users don't need lots of options, and often do not understand how they impact the site. Developers need to make these design decisions and should be encouraged to do so. User feed back should guide these decisions, not options.

DECISIVE CODE

The core of Tentacle is written using an MVC, this means the core is maintainable and easily leveraged. Themes have been made to be as flexible as possible while remaining relatively simple when it comes to the infrastructure around them. Plugins also follow the MVC pattern so adding your own helpers, models, controllers, and views is no issue at all.

SIMPLICITY

Making something that is simple to use for Writers, Designers, Developers, and Site owners is no easy chore. But it should never seem that way for the users. If we can provide Writes with the tools they need and allow developers to fill in any requirement gaps while not limiting what designers can accomplish then we have accomplished our goals.

NO RELEASE DATES

We will have feature releases but will not have a set deadline. Our process will follow a design and development phase, then beta testing, Here is where we will get user feedback from a wider user base. After testing the Beta we will move on to a Release Candidate. After any issues pertaining to the Release Candidate have been resolved a full release will be made available.

In all cases a Beta, Release Candidate, and Release will be made available to the public, We would like to encourage feedback in all phases of development.

BE OUR VOCAL MINORITY

Jacob Neilsen wrote an article about the "Participation Inequality" Basically 90% of the users on a site are kicking tires, 9% may from time to time contribute, but there is a golden 1% group of people who actively participate. This 1% has the power to guide the development of Tentacle.