[Zope] Re: DC and the PTK?

[Paul Everitt]

I'll take the blame on this miscommunication.  I'm the one that told
Gary not to take support contracts on PTK.

We have a nearly ironclad support policy: we don't support stuff that
isn't official.  We won't support ZDiscussions, for instance.  If we had
to support everything we made available, then we'd stop making as much
stuff available.

Consulting, on the other hand, is a different story.  As Ethan noted, we
use PTK stuff in our consulting engagements, because we are directly
involved in the development of the solution and know where the bodies
are buried. :^)

PTK is part of our march towards getting into content management, and I
agree that we need to march quickly to a 1.0 release.

--Paul

Paul Everitt       Digital Creations
paul@digicool.com  540.371.6909
-----------------------------------------
The Open Source Zope application server
http://www.zope.org/
-----------------------------------------


Dennis Nichols wrote:
> 
> 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
> 
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