Well, I suspect the interest in this type of tool might be big enough to allow for the open Source model to apply in an efficient manner ? Depends on the skills required to bring it to life. I've started using Eclipse lately, and I just love it, I've combined PyDT/PyDEV + Subclipse + XMLBuddy and I have a decent tool for working on my products and skins. At home, I have a similar setup for working with Python/C, and it's fantastic, I'm far more productive with it. Some people might take offense to using a Java tool to do the job, but it seems to me like a potentially excellent foundation. Apparently Jython can be integrated into it ... I've been meaning to learn Java, maybe this would motivate me ? :P As for Zope IDE vs. CMS IDE ... The line (to me anyways) is blurry. Also, given current projects, I'd focus on Zope 3, which with it's component architecture makes things infinitely flexible, and therefore the line between Zope and "CMS" is not easily distinguishable. Ideally a full featured IDE would be component architecure aware and be able to discover and leverage it (Which interfaces do you have ? Which components ? How do I display this to the user ? Use that for code completion, Zope aware debugger somehow, etc ...) Maybe the ZMI functionality should be abstracted into a web service or something similar so that the ZMI is no longer purely restricted to a web interface? (Maybe it already isn't, admitedly, I don't know ...) Anyways, admitedly all this is above my skill level at this time, but I think the idea has value ... If this were a reasonably priced commercial tool, I probably would buy it mind you. Spending say a few hundred dollars to save hours and hours of work is common sense. though a tool like that would be years away even someone started now! J.F. -----Original Message----- From: Chris Withers [mailto:chris@simplistix.co.uk] Sent: May 6, 2004 3:51 AM To: Jean-Francois.Doyon@ccrs.nrcan.gc.ca Cc: a.meyer@hccnet.nl; a@totic.org; kretschmar@infoman.de; zope-dev@zope.org Subject: Re: [Zope-dev] How should an ideal Zope IDE look like? Jean-Francois.Doyon@CCRS.NRCan.gc.ca wrote:

More important is the second point: Having such a tool would bring a HUGE amount of value added to Zope. Mega, super huge.

Sounds like the opportunity for a commercial tool. It's not NEEDED, but it makes life a LOT easier, and so would give any company with it competitive advantage without detracting at all from people who don't use it...

My main concern would be it's adaptibility to custom content types. If I have my own Geospatial-ish content type, how would the IDE handle it ? How would I go about making it handle it ? etc ...

That's the tough one ;-) BTW, I thought we were talking about a Zope IDE, not an IDE for a CMS built on top of Zope...

Basically, yo me this should be a core feature of Zope, not an add-on.

Indeed. But having it as a core feature forces it to be open source, and hence run on open source budgets and timescales. cheers, Chris -- Simplistix - Content Management, Zope & Python Consulting - http://www.simplistix.co.uk