[ZDP] Teaching Newbies ZPT

[Philipp von Weitershausen]

Chris McDonough wrote:
> I actually am not sure that this problem can be solved in any reasonable
> way.  AFAICT, people don't actually read documentation before attempt to
> create a system using Zope (or any other framework).  They cut and paste
> and use recipes and examples try things and fail and eventually come to
> some sort of working solution, and only read the docs when they're
> really stuck.

Okay, I can see that. Often I am like this although I try to not follow 
this way of practice.

Still, these people first encounter DTML. Maybe it is because DTML is 
still so dominant in the default Zope installation (i.e. Data.fs.in). 
Yes, that must be it. index_html is a DTML document and 
standard_html_header and standard_html_footer pop right into the 
scriptor's eye because it corresponds to something they might have used 
in PHP, ASP etc. (including HTML from some static source).

So, this might sound kind of radical, but couldn't we change the default 
index_html from a DTML method to a Page Template? Furthermore, is there 
any reason to still keep standard_html_header/footer around? I'm certain 
that at least index_html as Page Template would change a lot in the 
behaviour of newbies.

> FWIW, the 2.6 edition of the Zope Book goes in to a fair amount of
> detail about the difference between ZPT and DTML and where it is advised
> to use one over the other.  It's very prominent in the docs, but as I
> said, I'm not sure that people really read them this closely.

Yes, I agree. People will install Zope and try to play around with it, 
maybe even do the tutorial. And guess what, the tutorial is still 
suggesting DTML. This is what I meant with checking the docs where they 
still mention DTML...

Phil