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Decision time coming: Joomla vs. Mambo |
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Written by Steve Graham
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Tuesday, 07 February 2006 |
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Its finally happening. With the releases of both Joomla 1.1 Alpha, and Mambo 4.6, Divergence is reaching a point where it won't be too long before component, module, and mambot (now plug in for Joomla) developers will have to support two different code conventions in order to support both projects.
After a careful reading of the code base for Joomla 1.1 Alpha, here is what we are seeing:
A carefuly crafted new framework, that will move Joomla into a much more proffessional category of software. This is remniscent of the type of coding more typified by the largest and most succesful open source projects. Separation of HTML and logic are continuing down a deterministic path that will ultimately make Joomla more stable, and more extend-able.
Although older naming conventions are still be respected and utilized (for compatibility reasons), Joomla is marching forward with new naming conventions exclusive to this codebase. Although not announced or discussed yet, it only makes sense at some point to drop the older Mambo naming conventions. Expect to see depreciation announcements sometime on the near future. They may not choose to do it, but removing the older naming conventions will lead to easier to read code, and a more efficient codebase that requires less maintenance (for bugs, etc...)
Sessions are being enhanced in ways that will now support sessions for third party developers. Third party developers will now be able to participate in Joomla sessions and recover their own variables from page request to page request. This is a major step forward and will lessen the impact and resultant redundancy of session based code in components, modules, and plug ins. If mambo does not follow suit, any third party scripts designed to take advantage of this will not be Mambo compatible (unless they test for Joomla vs. Mambo and execute different code for each one).
Joomla's core development team has announced that version 1.3 will incorporate non-backward compatible changes to the code base that will require templates to be rewritten or modified. Recognize what this means, Joomla will from this point on be striving for full realization of their goals, and backward compatibility is getting scrapped. To support both their, and Mambo's code bases is simply too much and reduces Joomla to the lowest common denominator. We think this is a good move, and one that will benefit both projects by freeing each up to pursue its own goals and objectives. Unfortunately, it requires each of us to select a project we wish to support and utilize exclusively if we do not wish to stay current with two separate code bases.
This is a tough development for those who are trying to keep one foot in each code base, but ultimately a good move for each project. It will lead to better code for each, and more progressive incorporation of each teams stated goals.
Stay tuned, good things are coming. We will each need to be diligent with regard to the progress and changes incorporated into each project, and recognizing the point at which we need to be prepared for more exclusive support of one project over the other.
We intend to support both projects for as long as we can, which may be continuous and ongoing. Ultimately we think this will lead to a splitting of our codebases into two variants for best utilization and lowest maintenance requirements. |
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Last Updated ( Saturday, 11 March 2006 )
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