Issue 1 May 2013

TXP reanimation

by Destry Wion |

After more than three years, TXP (Magazine) is back, and in a big way. Under new editorial direction and with strategic aims, there’s a lot to introduce in this first issue, including the magazine’s new identity and publishing agenda, the amazing team of people making it happen, and what you can expect in the future. And that says nothing about the other six cork-popping articles in this issue to kick things off: two profiles of remarkable Textpattern users, our pilot plugin review, a fantastic piece for you independents out there, a detailed look at the new default theme shipping with Textpattern 4.5, and a proposal for a new piece of identity in the Textpattern family of websites. We’re hitting the ground running with Issue 1.

Jean François Porchez

by Destry Wion |

While auditing txpmag.com content in preparation for TXP’s relaunch, I came across a short article from 2006 that introduced Le Typographe, a Textpattern-powered website belonging to the French typeface designer, Jean François Porchez. Keen on typography-driven web design, I decided to look into Porchez’s background more, and was rather stunned by the magnitude of his accomplishments. His professional history, combined with the fact he’s still using Textpattern CMS today, inspired me to do a follow-up interview and give the man due attention as a talented individual and a committed Textpattern user from the very beginning.

Interview with Marie Poulin

by Ralitza Dilovska |

For one of our first Community Spotlight articles, I talked with Marie Poulin, a member of the TXP team who will be serving in two important ways by Issue 2. First will be as Editor for TXP’s upcoming Site Watch column, where she—and occasionally other team editors—will be profiling exceptional sites powered by Textpattern CMS. She’ll also be a part of the committee that coordinates theme competitions sometime after the admin-side markup of Textpattern CMS has been reworked. Since she’s involved with these key roles, and because few who might be interested in theme competitions may know Marie, we thought it would be nice to introduce her to you. She’s not a personality to disappoint.

Adi recent tab: for a happy mouse

by Stef Dawson |

Click click click click. That’s the sound of people using Textpattern’s admin interface and navigating to things they’ve recently edited. Wouldn’t two clicks help ease wear on your mouse, as well as saving time and frustration? Fear not: there’s a plugin that does just that: adi_recent_tab.

Communicating your value

by Kevin Potts |

This is not isolated to people building websites. Scientists working on particle accelerators, predictive urban modelling, or DNA sequencing are commonly caught in a loop of their own lexicon. Architects, philosophers, politicians, analysts, CIOs too. From time to time, all are unable to distill complex analysis into words the common man can parse. The tendency to speak in technical jargon damages the marketing skills of you, the developer, designer or front-end engineer. It turns clients off.

Proposal for a Textpattern family emblem

by Destry Wion |

In Textpattern’s history, stewards of the project’s various microsites (docs, themes, plugins, and now this magazine)—lovingly called family—have not had a simple way of identifying their sites with the project, nor coherently with the project’s brand. While a Textpattern brand strategy would be a good thing to produce, eventually, there is a simpler and more immediate way of expressing the relationship. I propose the family of sites adopt an emblem of some symbolic nature as an effective (and even fun) way to help show their affiliation to the Textpattern project no matter what evolutions the sites go through to become more brand supportive. Further, I offer one possible design, and invite community interpretations on it, or new design ideas in comparison.

A new default theme for Textpattern 4.5

by Phil Wareham |

After nine years of using the same default theme—the one that has shipped since Textpattern’s inception—Textpattern CMS will sport a new theme beginning with the next major release of the system, version 4.5. I’d like to share how it all came about, the thinking that went into the new theme’s development, and what’s coming up next.