[Zope] Counting Memory Usage aka. Reading Top output.

[Michael T. Richter]

>> A shopping spree at the local bookstore does little good if
>> none of the documentation for Zope is available at the local
>> bookstore....

> What I meant about the books is that there are at least 4 Python
> books and countless Unix, Apache etc, books that will help in any
> Zope installation (good to know more than just the Zope part).

Ah!  Understood.  Although books on UNIX don't interest me in the slightest
(seeing as I escaped from the UNIX jail a long time ago), a good book on
Apache is quite definitely worth my while.  (I practically *BREATHE* Python
these days, so the Python books aren't quite as useful to me....:-)

> This also goes for most Open Source software products I have
> played with. Very basic, very crude, very matter-of-fact
> documentation for the beginner.

Agreed.  Open Source documentation seems to be by geeks for geeks, and
specifically for geeks who think that firing up a debugger is the best way
to get program documentation.

Personally I'm more task and tool oriented.  I have a task, I want to use a
tool to accomplish this task.  I don't want to have to wrestle with the tool
(or the tool's documentation) before I wrestle with the task.  For that
reason and primarily for that reason I've not had much use for Open Source
(or other free) software.  Python is a notable exception -- it's so cleanly
designed that the occasional hole in the documentation doesn't bug me as
much.  Zope is another exception.  Its documentation is miserable, but it is
such a powerful product that I'm willing to wrestle with it (although I'm
not happy about it).

> Zope will get better, we will help.

If I didn't think so, I'd have ditched Zope like I ditched most Open Source
software I've evaluated.  Instead I'm lurking in the Zope mailing list until
I get my Z legs and can contribute.