[Zope-dev] Speaking of 2.6...

[Brian Lloyd]

> By the way, Brian, if I can with the remaining amount of time 
> left, I'll do 
> the work I volunteered to do.  However, perhaps I speak for 
> others in that I 
> look to you and ZC for leadership as to *whether* I should do the 
> work.  I 
> simply don't know how to vet the list, and I feel like you guys are the 
> leaders.
> 
> I offered to help, and I meant it, but I feel you guys are the 
> leaders for 
> this, particularly for a release, for what seems to be obvious reasons.

Ok :) As far as "vetting" virtual host folder, my concerns 
boil down to:

  a. dependency / requirement for ordered folder

  b. having yet another virtual host thing in the 
     core will confuse people

I suppose that (a) can be gotten around by embedding the 
required functionality (or adding ordering to folders by 
default). Easy enough.

The "hard part" on this proposal is deciding whether having 
another virtual host solution in the core (rather than as an 
add-on) is worth the impact on user experience. 

We've already learned the hard way that the existing SiteRoots 
and VirtualHostMonsters etc. confuse people. This is partly due 
to under-documentation, but it is also partly because of the 
"here, we'll give you several ways to do it!" approach.

We've taken our share of beatings over the current situation, so 
I'm reticent about adding another way unless there is a very 
strong reason for it be a part of the core rather than remain 
an add-on component. (Maybe that's because I seem to catch a 
fair amount of the beatings, when they come :)

If there are strong reasons for it to be in the core, then I 
suspect it would need to be sufficient to be the "official" 
VH solution and we'd want to deprecate the existing things. 
That means that it will need to be well documented, and we'll 
need to produce the needed deprecation docs, transition guides, 
etc.

My other concern is maintenance. Adding big new parts like this 
to the core requires an ongoing commitment, and ZC is spread 
way too thin already. The upshot here is that there will be some 
natural resistance to putting significant additions into the core 
without someone stepping up to maintain it on an ongoing basis. 

If you are willing to do that, then I'm not so concerned about
that point.



Brian Lloyd        brian@zope.com
V.P. Engineering   540.361.1716       
Zope Corporation   http://www.zope.com