Fwd: Re: [Zope] beginner

[Gernot Hillier]

Hi Todd and *!

Am Dienstag,  3. Juli 2001 22:55 schrieben Sie:
> I'm also new to Zope, but I agree that having "transitional" manuals would
> be helpful. I'd like to see one that shifts traditional web developers into
> Zope by tackling the differences head on. I don't think that the Zope book
> http://serenade.4-am.com/ZopeBook actually does this. It certainly is
> helpful and provides a gradual introduction to Zope, but really what I want
> to see is how things should best be done the Zope way.
>
> I think I would have been better off starting with chapter 12 of this same
> book ("Extending Zope"). This chapter introduces ZClasses and shows how to
> create a product that would allow for a web presentation, user entry
> through the management interface, etc. For the longest time I couldn't
> "get" how I would do something as simple as create a recipe card file with
> Zope. Zope is a total mind-shift from traditional web development/database
> tools so hit it head on and show a complete development of a generic web
> site doing things entirely the Zope way.

Yes, I can 100% support this. I had to write a protype for a document 
management system and decided to use Zope. As I read chapter after chapter I 
was more and more excited about the possibilities with objects and built a 
small protoype with methods in objects and so on... 

But now I've read chapter 12 and know that all I've done 'till now is totally 
crap - because it could be done so much nicer with a real ZClass. 
Unfortunately I've only 3 weeks remaining (because I'm a student doing his 
work experience for a semester) to complete my part of this project - so I'll 
have to stay with this design and tell my successors to do it better ;-))

I don't want to complain about this - it's obvious that the first few things 
you do with a new system are not perfect. But perhaps it should be considered 
to give some hints to this chapter and describe the thoughts behind Zope in 
one of the first chapters more deeply, so that programmers who are used to 
program in an object oriented way (like me) can jump to this chapter early 
and start to develop in that way that makes the very exciting difference in 
using Zope... 

My suggestion would be to leave the book as it is but put a small chapter in 
between where the functionality of Zope is desribed more deeply - with a 
small part in the introduction that tells the reader that this chapter is 
only good for programmers with an object oriented background.

What do you think about this?

-- 
Bye,

Gernot