Several weeks ago I was attempting to find a new, lighter version CMS (content management system) on the best comparison site of it's kind, called CMSMatrix.org. When I say new and lighter, I mean new to me and lighter than Movable Type (MT), as I've installed dozens of MT CMS's and publish pages every day using MT but it's too big of a program and more than what I needed a CMS for, which was for publishing, archiving and managing a few dozen articles in a directory and then be able to share those articles across my network.
My CMS comparison research turned up a real gem of a software program and one of the first open source programs of it's kind; TextPattern
What is TextPattern?
A free, flexible, elegant, easy-to-use content management system for all kinds of websites, even weblogs.
When it comes to publishing on the internet, beginners and experts alike are met with a bothersome paradox: word processors and graphics applications allow anyone to do a pretty good job of managing text and images on a personal computer, but to make these available to the worldwide web – a seemingly similar environment of documents and destinations – ease of use vanishes behind sudden requirements for multilingual programming skills, proficiency in computer-based graphic design, and, ultimately, the patience of a saint.
Those who soldier on anyway may find themselves further held back by the web’s purported inflexibility with written language, with its reluctance to cope with all but the plainest of text, or by the unpredictable results brought about by using “WYSIWYG” web editors.
Textpattern is a web application designed to help overcome these and other hurdles to publishing online, and to simplify the production of well-structured, standards-compliant web pages.
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