[Zope] Re: DC and the PTK?

[Dennis Nichols]

At 11/29/00 03:42 PM, ethan mindlace fremen wrote:
>Dennis Nichols wrote:
>
>>At 11/28/00 11:34 AM, albert boulanger wrote:
>>
>>>Whether to go with portal products from Plumtree or iPlanet.
>>
>>If this implies that you are considering using Zope's PTK, then you 
>>should  be aware of this: You can *not* get commercial support from 
>>Digital  Creations for PTK because PTK is not a released product. If you 
>>think you  may need such support before PTK gets to 1.0, then you had 
>>best not use the  PTK. But that's no reason to not use the rest of Zope.
>
>
>This needs to be clarified.   We actively do consulting with the PTK.
>If you want to enter into a consulting contract with Digital Creations 
>that involves the PTK, that's not a problem.
>
>If you decide you want to use the PTK yourself, there exists a mailing 
>list and a product tracker. (see http://www.zope.org/Products/PTK ) The 
>PTK is under heavy development and is not a full release yet, so that does 
>need to be taken into account if you wish to use it yourself.

What Ethan says, however true it may be, is contrary to my experience. I 
worked on developing a site based on PTK for several months and was within 
a month of going live, but had problems I could not solve, either alone or 
with the help of the mailing lists. I contacted DC via email, explained 
what my problems were, and asked how to arrange for consulting time. That 
was 11 weeks ago, on 10 Sept 2000. The very next day I received an email 
from Gary Graham (gary@digicool.com, Director, Sales & Marketing) stating:

"PTK is a 0.01 release and not commercially supported yet. Zope is
commercially supported yet. Zope.org is the best PTK source at
present until we are able to release a commercially supportable
version."

Of course, PTK wasn't a 0.01 release at that point, but the message was 
clear. That caused me to (a) look for a substitute not using Zope, of which 
I found nothing worth considering, and (b) expend an extra two months 
redeveloping the site, still using Zope but not using the PTK. This caused 
substantial lateness in the project launch as well as considerable 
additional expense.

As you might imagine, I was none too pleased at not being able to obtain 
consulting in September. To hear that consulting really was available isn't 
about to make me any happier!

So Ethan, what is the story here?


--
Dennis Nichols
nichols@tradingconnections.com