I walk away frustrated and angry.
Not a good thing.
[5] I have a neat idea for a Zope product so I start coding it up. I find some bits and pieces on the web and try installing them, only to find that parts of my product have a name collision with parts of their product.
Products aren't libs. They're quite high-level and end-user specific. Take it or leave it or write your own and steal ideas from an existing one. Perhaps you should look at them as one big Cookbook of examples?
[1] The documentation is not complete.
Yes and no. Probably complete but scattered all over the web and txt files. We should have something like http://www.postgresql.org/docs/ or http://dev.mysql.com/doc/
Basically, yes. I want a tool that doesn't try to protect me. I want the full power of Python when I make my web pages. I do not want someone trying to protect me, or that makes me jump through hoops to get there. I want Zope's few great features without all of its restrictions.
Is that more clear?
Crystal clear. I hate that too. However, some restrictions can actually be good until you become a super expert because otherwise you'll write insecure or un-inheritable. I love that Python has a one-way-to-do-it approach with it's syntax but still it doesn't stop you from writing non-Guido like code like this: def foo ( self, a = "b"): return a (1%2+3)
Yet other parts of your discussion show a frightening lack of knowledge of web development environments in general.
Please don't be mean. I've been a programmer since 1979. I've done a lot of things in this last 27 years. If I can't make a tool dance and sing within two years of picking it up, then the chances are that the tool itself isn't measuring up. If there is something specific you want to address, please do.
I think you're right. It shouldn't be hard. Usability matters. For geeky tools too. -- Peter Bengtsson, work www.fry-it.com home www.peterbe.com hobby www.issuetrackerproduct.com