[Zope] Python neccessary to work with Zope?

[Michel Pelletier]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Milos Prudek [mailto:prudek@sol.cz]
> Sent: Friday, March 05, 1999 2:14 PM
> To: zope@zope.org
> Subject: [Zope] Python neccessary to work with Zope?
> 
> 
> I'm new to Zope. I'm very excited about it's potential, but my first
> impression is that I will need to master Python in order to use it. I
> believe Python is an excellent language, but I do not have the time to
> learn it. Several questions about this:
> 

You do not need to know a single line of Python to use Zope.  But
learning Python is a pleasure, not a chore.

> - Can I achieve anything useful in Zope without touching Python? I can
> learn DTML, of course.
> 
You can do just about anything with DTML.  In fact, most 'Products'
(read that, 'Zope Extnesions') are mostly DTML.  If your not writing a
Product then you can stay entirely in the domain of DTML.  DTML does use
a small bit of Python in itself, these are called expressions.  For
example, if you had an integer called num you could use:

<!--#var num-->

to 'render' it in your web page.  To get num + 1 you would use:

<!--#var "num + 1"-->

The contents of "" is a python expression.  But it's not a python
program.  If we didn't use Python we'd of had to have come up with some
other language like way of doing this that you'd have had to learn
anyway.

> - if so, what I can and what I cannot do without Python?
> 
Python is used for the following:

To write Products. This is hard core development.

To write External Methods, which are used to hook special or
wierd/pre-existing python functions into Zope.  This is rarely necesary.

> - could I, for instance, do something like slashdot.org 
> without Python?
> 
Yes.  There may be a 1% slice of something like slashdot needing a bit
of Python.  But remember, slashdot is a huge application written
entirely in Perl.

> - is there a plan to give Zope features (or ready-made
> modules/factories) that would completely eliminate the need 
> to work with
> Python (for certain tasks that can be automated or turned into
> templates)?
> 
Yep.  These are called Zope Classes.  They are still in-house here at
Digital Creations because we are still debugging/figuring them out.  A
Zope Class lets your create your own objects that can be added into Zope
without writing Python code.

> 
> --
> Milos Prudek
> 
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