[Zope] DTML discussion at the moment

Alexander Staubo alex@mop.no
Tue, 15 Jun 1999 18:33:50 +0200


Martijn Faassen wrote:
>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.
[snip]

Yep, but we mostly do it because wrapping things in an External Method
is more painful than writing the equivalent code in DTML. Do a mistake
in writing the EM that you have to restart Zope. There is no provision
for writing the EM Python code through the Zope management interface --
for this reason I'd like to see a Script Method object which has a
text-area field where you can write Python code. It'd definitely ease
the transition to Python whenever this is needed.

--
Alexander Staubo             http://www.mop.no/~alex/
"`This must be Thursday,' said Arthur to himself, sinking low over
his beer, `I never could get the hang of Thursdays.'"
--Douglas Adams, _The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy_