[Zope-dev] acl_users

[Brian Lloyd]

> > In AccessControl/User.py, acl_users is used as the name of user folder
> > objects in their classes, and in the constructor, code checks for an
> > existing "acl_users" object to prevent dual-adding user folders.  This
> > could be changed to check whether __allow_groups__ has an id, and then
> > checking whether that 'id' exists.  
> 
> I've read through all the Zope source that uses __allow_groups__, so I 
> think I know what it is used for.
> 
> What I can't work out is, why is this value called __allow_groups__ ?
> 
> Can anyone offer any insight?

Long ago, when the sky was dark and the earth boiled and the 
primordial elements of Zope were brewing, __allow_groups__ 
was a simple dictionary-like thing that was generally hard-coded 
in applications to control access (and the publisher used it 
directly). As the earth cooled and simple life began to emerge, 
the __allow_groups__ structures became manageable through the 
web in a relatively rudimentary way (but still looked a lot like 
simple dicts to the publisher). 

By the time the hairy mammals began walking upright and Zope assumed 
the general form we see today, the publisher expected __allow_groups__ 
to be either a dict-like object or to have a 'validate' method. In 
theory, it still supports the old dict behavior today. Maybe not 
insight, but a little history at least... 8^)


Brian Lloyd        brian@digicool.com
Software Engineer  540.371.6909              
Digital Creations  http://www.digicool.com