Because I always stick to my plans
September 2nd, 2004
I’m just going to do a little recreational sketching of the next major things to go into Corny, because I’m thinking about it, because friends are starting to suggest that they really could use it, and… hey, even though programming little spaceships is more fun than programming text fields, that doesn’t mean that programming anything is more fun than dreaming up features. So let’s go!
Permissions. I have a few bones’ worth of the skeleton of this already. The challenge is how to do the UI. I have some decent ideas on that too, but: basically, the default Cornucopt install will let the user who creates a new page not just decide what type of page it is, but decide who can use it. If the pagetype says they can choose. And if they can create the pagetype in the first place. It is all both saner and more complicated than I am letting on. Sigh.
Usergroups. A big part of what will make permissions usable is the usergroup pagetype, one of the first built-in pagetypes that will really abuse the whole concept of “type of page” (and by no means the last). By default, Cornucopt will let anybody make a group of users, and add any users to groups they’ve made. It will not do anything asinine like let you send them all messages. Usergroups will be fairly simple to start, with no real messaging at all; they’re just a way to aggregate a bunch of names when you’re writing permissions.
Admin pages. You will need ways to change all this stuff even after you’ve done it. Not all of those ways should go right onto the edit page. I already wanted to have admin pages in 0.1, but I was thinking more of the sitewide admin stuff… you know, the stuff for… admins.
Because I am dumb, I am thinking about doing these before I do these. But what I really, really need is a coding partner. Please, people; I know PHP is the language of peasants and madmen, but think of the glittering prizes. Or the menus.