My general guidelines to learn Python/Zope/CMF/Plone as a non-english speaking, web-ignorant, non-programmer, non-object-oriented, non-pythoner, non-zoper, non-ploner, non-etc, self-learning guy. First, i generally read chapters, just before before going to sleep. To load my brain as it works more and better at night. Generally, when i wake up i have a faster and best understanding of what i'm learning. Software -------- While learning and/or testing, try to use the latest stable releases or close to stable. You will avoid to meet solved bugs and you'll benefit from new architecture and concepts. Python 2.3.3 - stable - Zope 2.7.0RC2 CMF 1.4.2 - stable - Plone 2.0RC5 Links : http://www.python.org/download/ http://zope.org/Products/Zope/2.7.0rc2 http://cmf.zope.org/download/CMF-1.4.2 http://plone.org/newsitems/plone2-rc4-available (it's really rc5 and not rc4) Documentation ------------- Read the docs and i think the two fundamentals one are : the ZopeBook http://www.zope.org/Documentation/Books/ZopeBook/ The ZopeDeveloperGuide http://www.zope.org/Documentation/Books/ZDG Though they are not perfectly up-to-date due to the fast evolution of the framework, they are really, extremely, useful to understand the underlying concepts and the general architecture of Zope and friends. it's worth paying the time to read those books. Having acquire strong basis, you'll be able to understand the API reference and then you'll be ready to dive into the more precise documentation : the source :) Additional links ---------------- The Dieter's book http://www.dieter.handshake.de/pyprojects/zope/#bct_sec_1 PloneBook (updated 02/06/04 at this moment) http://dev.clearwind.ca/Files/Plone/Book/ Plone How-to's http://plone.org/documentation/howto/ Use it ------ First of all, install Zope and try the examples and the tutorial. That will give you a general overview of the system and you'll learn some terminology. Generally the examples are in the 'import' directory of your Zope installation so you'll have to import them in your Zope root( see guess what ? the ZopeBook :). CMF and Plone ------------- At this stage you know how to manipulate product packages, install, find the version, etc. So install the CMF the Content Management Framework on wich Plone is built. read the docs at : Install Plone (basic one) Use it as an end-user and then read the docs and how-to's at http://plone/org/Documentation Last step : build you own basic product. Getting help on this list ------------------------- Try to use a descriptive subject Describe your configuration (os, language and software versions, etc.) Describe the symptoms What you want to achieve What happens really join code snippets if necessary. If you get error messages join the traceback as text. There are gurus on this list that can help you very quickly if they haven't to guess what your problem is really. About docs ---------- Even if the products and docs are high-quality ones, don't forget that they are opensource and that their authors must find time to live, time to work and time to serve the opensource community. So the docs aren't delivered as quick as the product but they are better that ie, the ones delivered in my paid W&@dozze :( Consider that as a low-level tribute to them. Sorry for having been so long but now i'll be able to cut and paste some chunks for future messages :) Hope my english it's clear enough and helpy. André John Poltorak wrote:
I've been bracing myself for this to happen because of the large potential for conflict among different versions of Python, Zope, CMF and Plone...