[Zope] Allaire Spectra

[Joe Grace]

Michel Pelletier wrote:

> Recently I've been meditating on a comment from Jon Udell:
>
> "It is completely feasible for a novice to download Zope, install it,
> and build a simple site -- even one that leverages the object hierarchy
> to factor out repetitive pieces -- without writing any code. And the
> result is 100% Web-manageable."
>
> This could be a start.

It's the hump after that that's causing me problems, and I could tell that
Zope was worth pursuing.  It's all the Zen that's hard to get.  I guess
part of it is that I like to understand and have confidence in what I'm
doing.  Zope with all it's Zope Zen doesn't give me that definitive warm
and fuzzy feeling, especially when I see comments from expert users
exclaiming "Wow, I didn't realize it worked that way." on something as
fundamental as acquisition.  I thought I got it but now I'm not so sure.

It doesn't help that Zope is in transition 1.0->2.0, doc.s are in
transition (ditto), and everyone's usually too busy to answer
not-totally-newbie questions.  Plus, it doesn't help that people are coming
out with amazingly useful sounding new features (e.g., XML, Redirector,
Visual Studio) which make me think "Gee, I wish I'd done that.  Geez, maybe
I can help." but then regress into remembering I'm missing some unknown
amount of Zope Zen.  Maybe it's too many branches, too little documented
trunk.

Maybe it's just me.

= Joe =

P.s., the Trinkets document mentions on page 5 that there's a "java
servlets" plumbing layer for Zope (or am I misreading it?).  Anyone know
where to find this and an example running?  I'd love to get my Java server
(not necessarily servlet) talking to Zope but haven't seen any Java support
mentioned anywhere but this document (in months of lurking).  Simple
question.  Is there a simple answer?  If not simple, is there a best answer
with example?