In December 2003 Dean Allen was about to release his cms Textpattern; a web writing tool for writers and wrote :

What’s all this, then?
Textpattern is a forthcoming system designed to simplify publishing on the web. It is intended to be very easy to use. Upon installation, only a web browser and a connection to the internet are required to publish and maintain a web site. Little technical knowledge is needed; those who wish to write on the web, but who are perhaps daunted by the learning demanded by markup languages such as HTML and XML and the presentation language CSS, may find Textpattern to be what they’re looking for.

The production of structurally sound, standards-compliant web pages is basic to its operation.

Creators of personal journals, images, web logs, periodicals, magazines, gossip, fiction and/or commentary of any form are those for whom Textpattern is ideal.

The hook?
There are many, but for a start: all the elements that make up a site published with Textpattern – code, layout, and content – are subject to a rich system of cross-categorization, with the goal of a simple but powerful way to control and customize the appearance of articles, links, comments, images and more, depending on the context of the page being viewed. What a stupid paragraph!

No, really, the hook is ease of use. And dynamic everything. And a built-in Googlesque search engine. And more.

When will it be available?
Soon.

What will I need to use it?
An account with a hosting company, or space on a server, that supports current versions of PHP and MySQL databases, and a registered domain name.

How much will it cost?
Textpattern is free of charge for personal use. Corporate licences will be available on a per-user fee basis.

I get none of this. Can you install it for me?
Yes. For pre-release testers this is available at no charge. After Textpattern is released, custom installation will be available for a fee.

What about plugins?
Anyone familiar with processing text via PHP functions can add features to Textpattern; these can be applied selectively or entirely to published pages.

Here is a post from Dean Allen’s blog Textism.com from 16 October 2002, which was using the publishing CMS: Textpattern.

I know this guy Noël: a standup dude, a straight shooter, a no-bullshit kind of guy. He’s lived in Pompignan his whole life, as have several generations of his family. He speaks in the Occitan-heavy slangy drawl of the Languedoc, in which wine comes out vang, things that are good are bang, and the Village in which we live is Pompeenyang. He is precisely the funny-cranky but skilled misanthropic optimist that I try and fail to be.

Noël is the owner of about 18 hectares of vineyards that lie on either side of the road that runs into town from the North. From this road it’s plain to see that – unlike all of the other 138 members of the Pompignan wine cooperative – Noël grows dense, healthy vines. Big fat grapes. The reasons for this are many: he knows what he’s doing, he works very hard, he loves what he does and – unlike the other 138 members of the Pompignan wine cooperative – he would be unsatisfied to fling a wodge of chemically fertilized garbage into the hopper every September for a cheque.

After Noël was named President of the wine co-op last year, he managed to shake things up quite a bit: he got them computerized (and by that I don’t mean he computerized production, he got a PC for the office), he hired a full-time œnologue (who looks like Danny Kaye and makes goofy faces when sipping), and instilled a policy of actually inspecting grapes before they are weighed and pressed. Many truckloads were rejected for inferior quality. This of course made some growers mad, but for the first time in modern memory the wine was not utter crap. Medals were awarded. Labels were designed. Pallets were shipped. Future options were considered.

But smalltown resentments run long, and this past summer Noël was voted out as President. By September everything was fully back the way it was, the 2002 wine is crap, and the cult of mediocrity reigns once more at the Pompignan wine co-op.

So Noël is telling them to go fuck themselves.

He’s going to build a cave, on his own property. He will get his own appellation. He will make very good wine. This news is recent, and it is very good.