Speaking for myself, I hate mysql. It may be true, that for medium and large sites, databases are the only alternative. But for small sites with 20-30 pages, and a small gallery? Most cms’s are like a canon…
True, there are many excellent cms/blog systems, but not for me.

That is why I decided to make my own cms:

1. flatfile database, txtsql or maybe gladius(great), or even maybe just some includable files.
2. wysiwyg editor this is important for my clients. Maybe some flash texteditor, (for God’s sake, just no javascript)
3. It should be small 3-4 MB, no 18 MB cms system fot 10 pages of text.

I know there are many coders out there, who says now, what an idiot. wysiwyg and xhtml css validation does not like each other. Yes, maybe, but I can not expect that my clients will learn xhtml just for the sake of xhtml validation.

Cms today are for the experienced webdeveloper.
For example drakecms with gladius is great, — and here comes the BUT –, the admin GUI is terrible. Too many options, illogical button-names, etc. I know drakecms is one of the best systems, and I like it, but, but, but….

Ok, thats enough for now, sorry for my english — and since I came from the Graphic Design World — sorry for my bad opinion.
I am still waiting for a good cms.

Using Drake CMS you can switch from the embedded Gladius DB (flat-file with SQL92 compliance) to any other dbms (Drake CMS uses adoDB lite as database abstraction layer) with a few clicks. I think it is revolutionary enough for now

They still work with static files, and when the work of maintaining them is too much, I convert them to a template and then the scripts kick in with the data (that can come from text files or the DB). The growth of the website has been huge (for what is essentially a hobby project) and I’m starting to feel the pressure of the patchy nature of my tools. But I haven’t found a CMS that allows me a mix of file-based and DB-based content. Until now

I’ll follow with interest the evolution of your project. Good luck.

“and I’d pay for a product like that just to allow clients a good way to edit their content once I hand it over to them. It’s a small price to pay, not to mention a real time-saver, not having to worry about having to explain anything to them once I hand over the design & content. There’s definitely a need out there for this kind of stuff.”

Well, that’s what I’ve created.

I’m in the middle of making minor changes suggested to me by clients who have purchased some of my other software.

I’ll release a video of the templating process soon.

Another thing… this isn’t a flat file system or a database system, it’s both. You can put all your content in the database, or all in files, or a mix, whatever you want.

However, where is the CMS going to be housed? How do you plan “to be able to convert your HTML layout into a template in seconds without any effort?” Is it going to be an easy way to add tags, or scripts, or the-like, to an html file that automatically adds administrative functionality to flat-files, as well as the option for database-storage for database-friendly content like spreadsheet information, and the-like.

Not to say that it is impossible to be financially supported by this CMS you’ve been working on, if it became an open-source platform being evolved by many people all accross the world rather than just one person or a team of say 10/20.

Is there a way to market this idea of flat-file cms to actual website-server companies, and have them financially subscribe to this platform idea to compete with other server companies?

I know that there are allot of website designers that are moving towards trying to make html templates using standardized ways of laying out pages with css & xhtml, so that any website-design can be automatically converted to any-other website-design with the ease of, say…

http://www.csszengarden.com or http://www.themaninblue.com/experiment/CSSLoveChild/

Which actually may make this kind of idea easier to work with if there is some kind of standardization. But I suppose it’s hard to collaborate with people, because the moment it gets opened-up, it suddenly isn’t entirely owned by the original creator(s), and financial support starts to spiral dangerously out of control. There has to be a solution to this way. …Maybe I want to change the way markets work rather than how websites work; lol

It’s a proprietary website management system all its own, but last time I used it, it was really really easy & relatively-intuitive to work with. Blogger easy almost! However, …its a service, not an open-source product.