[Zope] ArsDigita .. request for comments

[Andrew M. Kuchling]

Jimmie Houchin writes:
>So to scale with Philip you develop with AOLserver/Tcl/ACS, buy big,
>expensive hardware, buy big expensive database. ie: throw lots of money.

Actually, that isn't quite the point.  He isn't actually arguing 
for AOLserver's superiority over every other system, and somewhere
(but I can't find exactly where) he suggests instead:

     Your development technology doesn't matter.

I wish more managers knew this.  You can build interesting
applications in Zope.  You can build them using Java servlets, or CGI,
or WebObjects.  No tool is going to magically solve all your problems,
and solving them will require familiarity with your tools, hard work
and careful effort, no matter what you use.

We had a manager here who was quite enamored of Java, and early on we
wrote some stuff in Java servlets.  He viewed our Zope work as just
stopgaps on the way to Java code that would carry us into the
long-term, but every time I asked "What problem would be solved by
rewriting all our Python code into Java?", there was no clear answer.
Unfortunately, far too many people in business computing follow
a similar management-by-white-paper-and-press-release style.

Similarly, Greenspun argues that you shouldn't re-invent databases; it
would require a tremendous amount of work to add to your home-grown
system all the features that existing databases have -- fancy query
optimization; storage across several devices; on-line backups;
federated operation; etc...  So use an existing system; Greenspun's
preference is Oracle, but he doesn't argue it like a law of nature.

-- 
A.M. Kuchling			http://starship.python.net/crew/amk/
One has no wish to be devoured by alien monstrosities, even in the cause of
political progress.
    -- One of the Tribunal, in "Carnival of Monsters"