[Grok-dev] Benefits of Grok -- please contribute

[Sebastian Ware]

I haven't used Grok beyond hello world, but...

14 maj 2007 kl. 00.10 skrev Sebastian Ware:

> Hi all!
>
> These would be useful questions to get answered from as many  
> different perspectives as possible in order to create a strong and  
> compelling message:
>
> (you can keep the answers short, just so one gets the point)
>
> 1 What does a developer look for when choosing a web development  
> framework?

Must haves:
-Easy to evaluate
-Quick to learn
-Avoid pitfalls
-Easy to explain the choice to fellow developers
-Easy to explain the choice to managers
-Good documentation
-Responsive community
-Good sample application (that one can tinker with)

Good to have:
-Proven scalability
-Proven stability
-High profile sucess stories
-Nice website
-Nice screencast

>
> 2 What does a manager look for when choosing a web development  
> framework?

Feelgood:
-Nice website

Risk:
-Cost of replacing developers in the project
-Project failure risk
-Availability of existing components
-High profile sucess stories

Cost:
-Productivity
-Code reuse

>
> 3 Which frameworks are direct competitors to Grok?

Open-source:
-Ruby-on-Rails
-Django
-TurboGears
-Zope2
-Zope3
-J2EE

Proprietary
-J2EE
-.NET
-PHP

>
> 4 What are the benefits of choosing Grok (over "competing"  
> frameworks)?
>

-ZODB
-Flexible 2nd generation form support
-Integrated admin interface
-Pluggable role-based security
-10 years in production
-Flexible (pythonic) configuration
-Learn GROK - learn Zope3
-No tie-in whatsoever (RDB/ORM/AJAX/Authentication...)

> 5 What might be considered drawbacks with Grok compared to  
> "competing" frameworks?

-You have to understand the concept of component architecture and  
adapters
-Understanding object-databases (ZODB)
-Zope3 lacks many features found in Zope2 (such as some of the nice  
index types found in Zcatalog)
-No apparant commercial backing (marketing, support, accountability  
etc.)
-No high-profile user
-Poor documentation
-No roadmap
-You have to restart the server when you change code

>
> 6 If someone explained Grok in an article or review in a single  
> paragraph, what would we want it to say?

Grok is the framework for Python developers who want to access the  
power of the Zope 3 component architecture, but do away with the  
overhead of verbose configuration. Piggybacking on Zope 3, Grok is  
basically a more agile approach to this proven enterprise quality  
application server and framework. Gone are the days when Zope was  
large and unwieldy, Grok on Zope 3 is more compact, agile and easy to  
learn than any of its predecessors.

>
> 7 If I described a "beginner" Grok newbie, what features in Grok  
> would interest him the most?

-Creating applications with ZODB and Zcatalog (no SQL)
-Taking advantage of existing components
-Developer tools (the code/compile/debug cycle...)

>
> 8 If I described an "advanced" Grok newbie, what features in Grok  
> would interest him the most?

-Configuration,
-component reuse,
-enterprise integration
-testing framework
-version management
-team development tools

>
> 9a Is there a silver bullet? (Something that if one gets it, just  
> puts Grok in a class of itself with regards to competitors)
> 9b Is the silver bullet easy to explain?
>
> Regards Sebastian
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