[Zope] Rules Based Applications

[Jerry.Spicklemire@IFLYATA.COM]

Hi Zope Fans,

I've been searching the Web for references to 
Rules Based Programming with Python, and Zope. 
Not much so far. 

Anybody else out there interested in this topic?

It may sound like a can of worms, since it sort of  
implies the need for *yet another syntax* layer. 
Still, the gist of the recent *Rant* thread re. DTML 
being at once too hard and too simple, suggests 
it may be time for another approach.

I've personally spent way too much time trying to 
explain to folks at work that the fundamental 
principle underlying Markup Languages is to let 
the computer handle formatting, and presentation. 
Now that these folks have had a glimpse of XML 
they are finally "getting" it. Ironically, the reason 
they are starting to come over, is entirely due to 
the verbosity of XML, relative to HTML. 
They just don't want to hand code XML, even 
though they *knew* that HTML was *easy*. 

Until the sheer volume of XML tagging was in their 
face, they could never make the leap to the 
conclusion that the ultimate volume of HTML 
documents that need formatting warranted an 
automated solution. Go figure.

How does this relate to Rules? Well, Rules and 
Natural Language represent a method of end 
user interaction that is truly "easy". If we want 
to empower users, this could be nirvana.

I did find a link to few small examples of AI at 
Python.org, on Joe Strout's site 
	(http://www.strout.net/python/) 
and I'll start there.

Thanks for your consideration,
Jerry S.