[Zope] How do YOU enter content?

[Stephen Pitts]

On Tue, Feb 08, 2000 at 12:01:04PM -0600, Jim Sanford wrote:
> I personally just write the raw dtml/html code in the Zope management interface, but that is me (I have a knack for languages,
> spoken and computer, - had military training in 2 (Vietnamese and Russian) and have picked up a bagful of computer languages over
> the years. HTML, JavaScript, Zope(DTML) and Python being the latest)
> 
> I have tried using a GUI to design a page and then convert it to DTML manually, but I have found that most GUIs produce really "fat"
> code and don't like it.

Seconded. I remember an instance where I created a rather large table
(200 rows) with Frontpage. The HTML file was > 100k. I looked at the
file in a text editor, and it using a whole lot of extraneous <FONT>
tags, etc. I just cleaned up a page written with Netscape Composer. Ugh!
That code was nasty!

Quite honestly, my artist friend and I (I'm nowhere close to a
graphics designer; I'm just the "code monkey") start out with a list of
sections to the web site and then try and make a mockup HTML page. We
browse around other web sites and discuss the pros/cons of different
things, then we update/refresh on a copy of Zope that runs on my
computer until we get it right. 

After that, we outline the content that will be in each section and
start doing them. I normally write some ZClass Products as needed
beforehand but then we jump right into a RAD design cycle. 
Every section goes through several revisions until we
are both satisfied. I write raw DTML into Zope, but then again, HTML
makes sense to me :-)

Disclaimer: I've only developed one site with Zope so far; Its a church
youth group site. A near-final copy is at http://secure.lunaweb.net:8100
if you'd like to see the result of my "strategy". I'd be interested in
what other people have to say about their development cycle.
-- 
Stephen Pitts
smpitts@midsouth.rr.com