[Zope-dev] To ZCML or not ;-)

[Lennart Regebro]

On Apr 8, 2005 12:54 PM, Martijn Faassen <faassen at infrae.com> wrote:
> Chris Withers wrote:
> > Lennart Regebro wrote:
> >
> >> You know the feeling when a third party product has the wrong
> >> permission or no permission at all on something? What are you gonna
> >> do? Subclass: Lots of work. Patch: You gotta keep it updated. With
> >> ZCML, you override it. TADA!
> >
> >
> > Yes, this is all stuff I know and love about Z3 ;-) When I last saw
> > ZCML, it was horrible though. I don't mind XML, just not if it lots of
> > pointless typing...
> >
> > Jim suggests that ZCML has got better, I hope so, in which case I won't
> > have to write an alternative that uses the same underlying
> > infrastructure :-D
> 
> Since ZML is XML, creating a less verbose language may be easier to
> accomplish by actually *using* the XML infrastructure, and translating
> your language to ZCML.
> 
> Anyway, while I have my criticisms of ZCML, too much typing is really
> not very important in my list. You can get it somewhat shorter, I'm
> sure, but not *that* much shorter. I'd worry more about the reading part
> than the writing.

Yeah, I mean:

<something:something  foo="bar"  frotz="fnyppel">

   <fingal:ohlsson
       bitbucket="buccaneer" 
   />

</something:something>

Is not significantly shorter than:

something/something:
   foo=bar
   frotz=fnyppel

   fingal/ohlsson:
      bitbucket=buccaneer

Which would be really a minimal/shortest way to write it.
   
For me, the main drawback with ZCML is that WingIDE doesn't to auto
completion on it. ;) An ZCML editor that automatically popped up a
list of the supported keywords for every statement would be really
nice. :-p

A benefit of using an XML format is that many editors will happily
both do syntax high-lighting, some sort of auto-indentation, and
automatic commenting/uncommenting. A non-standard syntax wouldn't do
that.

-- 
Lennart Regebro, Nuxeo     http://www.nuxeo.com/
CPS Content Management     http://www.cps-project.org/