[Zope] listservs, forums and Zope...

[Barry A. Warsaw]

>>>>> "JB" == Joel Burton <jburton@scw.org> writes:

    JB> We use mailman, which is, IMHO, much easier to administer than
    JB> majordomo, and much less expensive than Listserv.

That's great to hear! :)

    JB> Mailman isn't a Zope product per se, but it is programmed in
    JB> python, and it's stuff is stored in python marshalled data, so
    JB> it's fairly easy to get at.

    JB> If I can offer specific help on places you're stuck, let me
    JB> know.

Given that a former and current Mailman developer both work for DC,
there's a darn good chance that it will become easier and easier to
integrate Mailman and Zope.  I have plans for Mailman 3.0 to rewrite
the underlying database code so that e.g. ZODB could be plugged in
instead of the homegrown, hardwired marshaling approach.  I also have
plans for writing interfaces so that authentication and memberships
can be handed off to external (to Mailman) processes, e.g. Zope and
CMF.  And it would be cool if the UI could be pluggable too so that
things like Presentation Templates or other Zope UI mechanisms can be
used.

Really, the grand plan for Mailman 3.0 is to sort of turn it inside
out, so that it's a package of functionality that can be plugged into
all sorts of other frameworks.  Then there'll probably be a "Mailman
classic" framework so that you can continue run it standalone if you
want.

Don't ask me when that'll happen, I've no idea.  First I need to get
the current 2.1 code base out of alpha so that there's a solid
internationalized Mailman release (with, of course, lots of other
wizzy new features :).

Cheers,
-Barry