[Zope] data point on ease of learning Zope -- I give up

[Donald Braman]

While I probably abuse the list by doing this, if I can't find documentation
after an hour of searching, I post a note to this list and they have an
answer (like the one Phil just posted). I'm often looking in the wrong
places or for the wrong thing.

But the point about learning to use Zope is a good one. The "Learn Zope"
page should have a channel for newbies and for experienced programmers. If
people can find what they want quickly, they may not stick around long
enough to see.

Also, maybe a more detailed TOC for the Zope Book would help (like in the
Postgres documentation). Looking at the Zope Book TOC doesn't really show
you where to find the Python/XML bits (though "Advanced Scripting" is a nice
clue).

I sympathize, Zooko, I too suffer from poor searching capabilities. And
there are others out there like us, I am sure. -Don

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[Zope] data point on ease of learning Zope -- I give up.
zooko@zooko.com zooko@zooko.com
Thu, 01 Mar 2001 13:59:00 -0800

Hi Zopesters!


I'm an experienced Python programmer, and I need to hack together a
quick web app that simply accepts POSTed XML data entries from
authenticated users, stores the data persistently, and provides a
formatted HTML representation of the list of all such entries to the
same authenticated user.


I thought I would look at using ZODB so that I could have the coolness
of nearly transparent persistence.  Then I thought I would use Zope so
that I wouldn't have to bother with connecting the HTTP transactions to
the logic.


So I did `apt-get install zope'[1] to download and install the current
Debian-packaged version of Zope (v2.2.4), and while I was waiting on
the download I went to zope.org.



It is now about 3 hours later and I have not yet found any "example
code" or instructions that shows how to set up a basic web site or how
to write Python code that gets executed, CGI-style, in response to an
HTTP transaction.  I browsed zope.org, the ZDP, and a site called
"ZopeNewbies".  I looked at the "QuickStart" that came with the zope
server, but all I saw was how to edit web pages using DTML.  I don't
want to have anything to do with DTML (though we use it in my product,
Mojo Nation[2], which BTW is probably the second-biggest open source
Python app, after Zope), and I don't want to edit any static pages, so
I stopped reading the "QuickStart".


So now I give up.  I'm going to install apache (`apt-get install
apache'), and use the Python bsddb module for a simple dict-like
database.


Even though I wasted about half of my scheduled time on trying to set
up a basic Zope server, I'll probably still have my prototype up and
running 3 hours from now, when I have a meeting with my co-workers.


Regards,

Zooko

[1]  apt-get is the app that implements Debian's package management
     system.

[2]  http://mojonation.net/