[Zope] A zope fear...

[jiva@devware.com]

Several times I have heard folks mention a fear of "not being able to
get my files OUT of zope once they are in there." And usually the
answer is "Well just back up your Data.fs file and don't worry about
it."  I think perhaps this answer doesn't actually address the root
concern.  I think the root concern is one that I am actually coming up
against right now in debates about using Zope for a project.  That is,
if I stick with scripting languages or other traditional languages, if
I need to, I can always fall back on text processing tools to make
large global changes to my projects.  How can I do this with zope?
Many of us programmers are taught to learn to manipulate text like
magic.  Zope seems to take that power away from us.

So, the real heart of my question here is: I just spent 3 months
building a web site using Zope.  Suddenly, we decide to change our
database schema, and I now have to go through and change all 400 of my
SQL methods in zope.  How can I automate this process?  How can I do
this just like a good-ole multi file search and replace?

Answers that don't count are: Use the find mechanism built into
zope. - It's not powerful enough for this.

Another: Your design shouldn't have relied on something that would
change. - Well, it happens, now how do I fix it?

A secondary question here is, what about "software configuration
management" and zope?  What if I need to return to an exact version of
my web site for testing a certain bug that's now cropped up at a
customer site.  What's the easiest way to automate keeping old
versions around without having to roll back my current changes.  That
is, without using the built in versioning?  (Sorry, CVS *is* more
powerful in some cases)

-- 
Laugh when you can; cry when you must.