[Zope] FAQ Wiki and What happend @ O'Reilly Conference

[alan runyan]

hello,
I'm working on quite a large java project and have been pushed back into
ZOPE remission :(  but I did have a chance to goto the O'Reilly Open Src
Conference where I saw some pythoneers :) , lots of perl mongers :( and some
fellow Zopistas.  One of the things, that I'm not quite sure has been talked
about was a small BOF on ZOPE.

I will let it be up to DC to talk about the BOF in full if they want to but
I ran into an instant problem that I'm trying to tackle over this weekend.
main problem -- lots of mis-information and mis-communication.

<stream_of_consciousness>
One of the fellows there  was from france and he had a problem w/ the ZOPE
vernicular (Acquistion, Products, DTML Method, etc... ) I believe, I hope!
this will result in some renaming schemes and maybe some changes in the
basic ZOPE approach for newbies.  to make things easier by having CONTENT,
and TEMPLATEs is one approach.

but the one that really really killed me was being in the lecture for the
Content Mgmt System for saloon.com.  they basically use a mixture of
mod_perl, html::mason, java, xml and oracle for there entire publishing
system.  It is actually farily primitive.. and could have been easily
tackled w/ ZOPE and forethoughts XML tools!  but instead of having problems
with the vernicular (which was indirectly mentioned.. he believed that ZOPE
would take a python genius to extend... not quite how true that is, but its
definetly a feeling when you first start out, or evaluate the product) he
mis-interpreted focuses of Digital Creations nad ZOPE community.

He thought that ZServer was written by Digital Creations.  And if you didnt
spend as much time as I have reading the mailing lists, you may misconstrue
that the XML tools that are being worked on now are a DC/ZOPE effort (which
isnt true at all, a majority of it is coming from the Community and
Forethought).  but.. XMLDocument was written by DC... so I could kinda see
that the lecturer thought ZOPE was 're-inventing the wheel' as far as it
came to basic tools, ZServer was concerned.  this is not true.

so, how I plan on aiding this (please contribute) is developing a FAQ for
ZOPE this weekend, in my spare time.  I hope it generates a 'one stop of
FAQs' ..  this is being addressed by ZDP (and I would use the ZDP) but I
believe its kinda hanging off the zope.org and the 'general purspose - ZOPE'
FAQs should be represented on the website.  if you've answered a question
more than twice, please put the question on the FAQ Wiki and then it can be
addressed.

zope.org does need a refactoring but I believe FAQs probably can not wait.
and the lack of structured information is hurting ZOPE quite a bit.  its
fairly unorganized, mainly because it has been (click on Members:) a victim
of its own success.  so, if you've made it this far, step over to FAQ Wiki -

http://www.zope.org/Members/runyaga/ZopeFAQs/FrontPage

what is needed now more than anything is Questions, for the Wiki.  what
questions to newbies or product evaluators need to be more intrigued by
ZOPE.  what general information is asked over and over again in the mailing
lists.  the point of this is to be fairly short and concise.  If I can get
lots of information - I will edit it down into cohesive FAQ Answers.
</stream_of_consciousness>

sorry if I dont make much sense, I only have a few hours to work on this :(
runyaga - runyaga_at_thisbox.com