[ZDP] Re: the be all end all interface project

[Jim Fulton]

Hi Mike,

This looks good. I'd like to help out any way I can.

I'd like to start by putting in a plug for ZWiki.  With ZWiki, 
the developement of documents, like process documents and use cases
can be carried out in a highly incremental and collaborative manner.

We're using ZWiki for a customer project and are finding it
wildly useful.

I think it would be a very good tool for managing and carrying out
this project and other documentation projects.

You can create a Wiki site on Zope.org by simply adding a 
"ZWiki Web". You can see ZWiki Webs in action at 
http://www.zope.org/Products/PTK/ZWiki/FrontPage and at
http://www.zope.org/Resources/Mozilla/ZWiki/FrontPage.

Note that it's hard to "get" Wiki, or to appreciate how
useful it is without actually using it. Check it out.

Jim

Michel Pelletier wrote:
> 
> Greetings,
> 
> I am mailing you folks to inform you of the inception of a new Project
> at Digital Creations that I am heading: documenting the most commonly
> used and most critical interfaces in Zope, and devising a framework for
> continuing to document Zope interfaces as they are (reverse or newly)
> engineered.
> 
> If you are recieving this email, then research has indicated you have an
> interest, at least passing, in this field.  Since we at DC have a long
> history of flailing in the gale force winds of the community, I am
> asking all of you to please let me know if you would like to
> participiate in this project.  Just about the only thing that will be
> asked of you is to read, and give a thumb up or down on what you see.
> Obviously, more serious participation is encouraged.  This is just one
> project in our new documentation effort; this is not a placebo message
> to put off what needs to be done now; this is an official, funded
> project of DC that is allready rolling (albiet only two of us are
> pushing so far... ;)
> 
> This is just an introductory email, there is little detail here on the
> things that I am working on, however, those of you who reply to this
> email will receive another email shortly pointing you to an area on the
> Zope site that contains the Vision, Requirements, Use Cases, Schedule,
> and other documents and artifacts of this project.  This material should
> be enough for you to start understanding the direction that we want to
> go.
> 
> One of the most difficult tasks to overcome is the sychronization of
> community and company efforts.  We here have been trying, over the past
> year or so, to devise a development process to guide our engineering and
> documentation efforts.  It is a hard task: processes such as this are
> few and far between in the open source community, we are new at it, you
> are new at it, and no one, including ourselves, knows quite how these
> things will work out.
> 
> So to enlighten you on how we think it's done (or at least how I think
> it's done), here is a short plan for the next couple of weeks to get
> this project on track:
> 
> Inception:
> 
>   This is sort of the deep, philosophical thinking phase of the
> project.  This is where the project's Vision (why are we going to do
> this?) and Scope (how extensive will it be? what will we NOT do?) are
> determined.  These may sems like trivial matters, but without a clear
> defintion of what we want from the beginning, things will just get
> fuzzier.  Currently, I am in this phase, but I don't want to pass onto
> the next one without your input.
> 
> Elaboration:
> 
>   This phase includes understanding Use Cases (who needs to do what?)
> and Requirements (what should this project definatly do in finite
> terms?).  I have some use cases and requirements culled from discussions
> with Amos and others, but your input here would definatly help.  From
> everyone's unique perspective, more can be seen than from just mine.
> 
> After Elaboration are more phases, but I won't get into that now.  I
> hope this quick explanation gives you an idea of where things will be
> going in the next couple of weeks.
> 
> Further, I need your assistance to help collect all those little things
> out there that we can reuse, like the Zope Quick Ref and the Zope API
> docs project.  If you know of other 'interfaceish' projects going on, I
> would love to hear about them (that doesn't just mean Zope only, we'd
> love steal as much as possible from other open source projects, that's
> the spirit right?).
> 
> Thanks, and I look forward to hearing from you.
> 
> -Michel


--
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