WML is not dead, is it? - A motivation email

Hi List,

I use WML since some time now to twiddle on my private site from time to
time and I really like it, especially it's flexibility.

However, since I use WML it's representation to the (internet) world is
very very poor.

I don't complain about this mailinglist. Even though traffic is very low,
the quality of the occasional messages is good, you can see that there are
people who are really using WML, even at work. Denis Barbier seems to be
still working on the code base, even though there hasn't been a release
for a long time. Also responses are quick.

But when you are on the mailing list you are allready "into it". But what
do people do who hear the first time about WML?

1) They google.
 - Asking google about WML doesn't help very much. There is the
unfortunate collision with Wireless Markup Language. But otherwise you
shouldn't expect much from a three letter word search.
 - Asking google about "Website Meta Language" is good. You get 12.800
references and on top is thewml.org

2) They go to the top site.
 - And this is where trouble starts. Sometimes (like right now) the site
is unreachable. And if you can reach it, a lot of important features are
broken. A couple of months ago Shlomi Fish announced a brushup of the
site but except for a 'Against epatents' button there is  not a lot of
new stuff.

Don't get me wrong here. I'm not blaming anybody. I just want to state
that for what WML can do, it is totaly 'underadvertised'.

Here is a list of my  top three whishes for the website:

- a searchable archive of the mailinglist
- online documentation. wmd is fine for me, but if you are just a
potential user, you want to have a look at the documentation before
installing the software
- examples, examples, examples. One thing is a good documentation, but
it's nothing without examples. Code for whole sites is fine but what I
would like most is a collection of code snippets that solve specific
problems. What I'm thinking about is a kind of 'plugin collection'. I'd
really like to share some of my stuff, maybe it's helpfull for others and
I'd really like to dig thru other solutions.

Ok, these are my thoughts, what do you think?

  Martin

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