[Zope] DTML discussion at the moment

[Martijn Faassen]

Tom Deprez wrote:
> 
> I'm not that familiar with Python, ASP etc. But, do keep in mind that DTML
> was created to give non-programmers the oppertunity to get some nice
> webpages done. This idea should be kept the same. Perhaps one could create
> two scripting languages : one which looks the same as a programming
> language and one, with less capabilities, but which can be used by
> non-programmers. Thus creating levels-of-use in the scripting language

I think that this is the idea already! Right now, we have DTML
documents/methods for HTML people. They can add some extra DTML tags to
talk to SQL or things written in Python. SQL is there for the database
people. Python is the full fledged programming language. for the
programmers. You can write external methods in it, products, and
apparently Digital Creations is working on a way to write Python safely
from within the Zope management screens.

What currently happens perhaps too often is that people (the
programmers) use rather heavy-duty DTML tricks to accomplish things,
because using Python is too hard for those small things right now.

This sophicicated use of DTML is probably _harder_ for non-programmers
to learn than Python itself! Python is a wonderfully clear language that
is quite easy to learn. I certainly struggle with DTML magic far more
than with Python -- though admittedly DTML interfaces with Zope, which
is a complicated system in itself; using Python to talk to Zope can be
difficult as well.

More on this all in a minute. :)

Regards,

Martijn