On Tue, Oct 02, 2001 at 07:05:30PM +0400, Oleg Broytmann wrote:
On Tue, Oct 02, 2001 at 02:29:37PM -0000, azbok@yahoo.com wrote:
I would just like to say hi all to the zope community. I was previously using Mason (which I still like) and found zope and it looks *GREAT*!
Welcome!
1) How long would you say it takes to really become proficient with zope?
Eternity :)
This is not a fair answer. Think of Debian as an analogy for Zope. There are users, who essentially have to know how to log in and how to use a browser. (This doesn't take much time at all!) There are administrators who need to know how to install a package and keep it running. Zope's packaging system is nowhere near as slick as Debian's, but this generally takes only a few days. There are shell developers (glue programmers). This takes a couple weeks to a couple months, depending on what you already know. These are people who never leave DTML or ZPT, who may or may not use ZSQL methods, these days the documentation for this kind of programmer ranges from adequate to very good. After a while, such programmers will also be working the Scripts (Python) and External Methods. I suspect that there will eventually develop a class of people similar to debian package maintainers (people who compile, patch, and often document the work of product developers.) This may not happen, as a simple tarball almost suffices now. Then there are product developers. Here you have to know python well, be able to read other works and glean the intent from the code. These are more or less the equivalent of upstream developers. Documentation ranges from mediocre to non-existent. You can start writing reasonably well in a couple of weeks, but you may paint yourself into corners that you have trouble getting out of. It is really hard to say how long this will take. It depends on problem domain and how good your 'feel' is. Because what I have been doing until recently is not all that amenable to pluggable products, I am just starting this process. It is not a lot harder, but you have to understand the machinery better and have much more to look at. Finally, there are Zope Core Developers. These are like the kernel hackers. If you need this level of proficiency, particularly as an 'outsider', budget a couple of years. You need to read python very well, have considerable overall knowledge of the project as a whole, and be able to keep up with lots of very smart programmers. Jim Penny