[Zope-dev] Efficient and flexible object references

[Steve Spicklemire]

Hi Gary,

On Sunday, August 19, 2001, at 05:47 PM, Gary & Karyn wrote:

>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Michael R. Bernstein" <webmaven@lvcm.com>
>> On 19 Aug 2001 10:00:49 -0500, Steve Spicklemire wrote:
> <snip ZPatterns conversation>
>
> oof.  ZPatterns does daunt me, I admit, and perhaps it is because of the
> aspect oriented and "meta-framework" perspective.  I can't help but 
> admire
> the ideas and planning behind it, though, and look forward to seeing if 
> I am
> up to it intellectually at this point, and further to seeing if it is of
> practical help for me.
>

Have you seen the ZPatterns examples in my area? I've gotten zero 
feedback on the last two, and they are the most interesting! They use 
"levers" to create SQL and SkinScript automagically based on the 
propertysheets of the DataSkins. It's kinda fun.

> Thank you for your "transactional caching" explanation, Michael.  Not
> knowing the full term, I was putting together the word parts to create 
> an
> inaccurate definition.  It sounds useful as a general optimization, but 
> in
> my case, as you say, something that would be used in addition to, not
> instead of, a Zcatalog-like persistent cache.  Steve, does that sound 
> right?
>

The good news is, you can use skinscript to make the catalog a 
"provider" of listish attributes that only get accessed when you need 
them. You'll need to fill in the details of a "real" application for me 
to get much more specific, but the point is that your application code 
can just say:

	for object in thisObject.relations:
		object.DoSomething()

and just accessing the "relations" attribute can fire a cataloq query, a 
SQL query, or an external method. The application doesn't really *care* 
how the relations are implemented, so long as there's a 
simple/well-defined interface to get them.

> The ZPatterns' racks, btw, seem to match a design decision I had already
> made for some other reasons, so I'm eager to explore further.  I look
> forward to having the time later this week to dig in to it.
>

Good!

take care,
-steve

> Thanks
> Gary