RE: [Zope-dev] Documentation Announcement
Pam, This is welcome news! Let me give you some feedback from the perspective of a Zope newbie. When I first learned about Zope I was quite excited about it, but when I started to delve into it a little further I was somewhat discouraged. Everything is in such flux, and it's hard to know what's current and what's obsolete. I asked a question or two about examples in documents on the web site and was told that they were obsolete but if I look at line such-and-such in the source code... My situation is probably like a lot of people's in that I'd like to get a handle on what Zope is and how to use it, but I don't have a mandate from my company to spend time on it. I'm basically trying to evaluate it in my spare time, and if it's as cool as it sounds then I will try to get my company interested. What I don't have is time to read all the source code and monitor what's being checked in and out. Like a lot of people who will be interested in Zope, I am new to Python as well. I'd be a lot more inclined to plow through source code, though, if I had a short doc that told me where to start and what the pieces are and how they fit together. So a couple of things that would be invaluable for someone like me: a) A big-picture roadmap, something to orient the newcomer. b) A substantive real-life example. Examples are always the best way to learn how to use new software tools. You folks are using Zope in the real world. Is there an example application that you can publish (i.e., source code)? Preferably this would be an example showing Zope's use to access databases on the back-end and handling e-commerce (credit card transactions, shopping carts, etc.). It sounds like you have a better mousetrap. Show me how to use it and I'll beat a path to your door. Thanks for your time. Jon Ide ETC jide@etcconnect.com -----Original Message----- From: Pam Crosby [mailto:pam@digicool.com] Sent: Wednesday, June 30, 1999 11:17 AM To: 'zope@zope.org'; 'zope-dev@zope.org' Subject: [Zope-dev] Documentation Announcement Hello Zope Community, Digital Creations is dedicated to provide up to date documentation. I have accepted the technical writer position to provide a focal point for all documents. We are commited to producing quality document and have established a plan to deliver. As part of our new documentation process, we will not release a new version until it is reasonably documented. The technical writer will publish the documents on the http://www.zope.org site. Along with new releases, bundled text files (changes.txt, install.txt & readme.txt) will provide necessary information about the individual projects. All DC documents will be available as Guides and HowTo's. The Guides and HowTo's will be available on the new Zope site and it promises to be exciting. In the works is the Zope Developer's Guide (ZDG) and the Zope Administration Guide (ZAG). The developer's guide will contain information targeted towards the developers. The administration guide will provide tidbits helpful for the content managers. Please feel free to submit suggestions for documentation efforts, they should be posted to Collector. Thanks and hello! -- Pam Crosby mailto:pam@digicool.com Technical Writer http://www.zope.org Digital Creations _______________________________________________ Zope-Dev maillist - Zope-Dev@zope.org http://www.zope.org/mailman/listinfo/zope-dev (For non-developer, user-level issues, use the companion list, zope@zope.org, http://www.zope.org/mailman/listinfo/zope )
Jon Ide wrote:
Pam,
This is welcome news!
I'll second that!
Let me give you some feedback from the perspective of a Zope newbie. When I first learned about Zope I was quite excited about it, but when I started to delve into it a little further I was somewhat discouraged. Everything is in
Our group has also had some trouble coming up to speed. We are actually doing much better now that we're far enough into the research have the code make sense when we read it, but there were a couple of frustrating days at the beginning of the learning process.
So a couple of things that would be invaluable for someone like me:
a) A big-picture roadmap, something to orient the newcomer.
b) A substantive real-life example. Examples are always the best way to learn how to use new software tools. You folks are using Zope in the real world. Is there an example application that you can publish (i.e., source code)? Preferably this would be an example showing Zope's use to access databases on the back-end and handling e-commerce (credit card transactions, shopping carts, etc.).
I would add to that list: c) Documentation for the existing classes. Just knowing what classes are out there would make it *much* easier to figure out how to go. We are looking at creating Products, but what we really want is to modify the behavior of an existing object. If we knew what to subclass, that'd make life much nicer. Thanks, Doug Hellmann
Jon Ide wrote:
Pam,
This is welcome news!
a) A big-picture roadmap, something to orient the newcomer.
b) A substantive real-life example. Examples are always the best way to learn how to use new software tools. You folks are using Zope in the real world. Is there an example application that you can publish (i.e., source code)? Preferably this would be an example showing Zope's use to access databases on the back-end and handling e-commerce (credit card transactions, shopping carts, etc.).
This would be extremely useful to me also Is there one place which lists products, their function and development status? How close is Zope to plug and play for putting up a basic database backed store? I'd love to see an example of how an application is better and easier to maintain as a result of the power of acquisition. Thanks, Kent
participants (3)
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Doug Hellmann -
Jon Ide -
Kent Tenney