[Zope] A few questions from a newbie

[Jim Penny]

On Tue, Oct 02, 2001 at 07:05:30PM +0400, Oleg Broytmann wrote:
> On Tue, Oct 02, 2001 at 02:29:37PM -0000, azbok@yahoo.com wrote:
> > I would just like to say hi all to the zope community.  I was 
> > previously using Mason (which I still like) and found zope and it 
> > looks *GREAT*!  
> 
>    Welcome!
> 
> > 1) How long would you say it takes to really become proficient with 
> > zope?
> 
>    Eternity :)

This is not a fair answer.  Think of Debian as an analogy for Zope.


There are users, who essentially have to know how to log in and how
to use a browser.  (This doesn't take much time at all!)  

There are administrators who need to know how to install a package
and keep it running.  Zope's packaging system is nowhere near as slick 
as Debian's, but this generally takes only a few days.  

There are shell developers (glue programmers).
This takes a couple weeks to a couple months, depending on what you already
know.  These are people who never leave DTML or ZPT, who may or may not
use ZSQL methods, these days the documentation for this kind of programmer
ranges from adequate to very good.  After a while, such programmers
will also be working the Scripts (Python) and External Methods.

I suspect that there will eventually develop a class of people
similar to debian package maintainers (people who compile, patch,
and often document the work of product developers.)  This may not
happen, as a simple tarball almost suffices now. 

Then there are product developers.  
Here you have to know python well, be able to read other works and glean the 
intent from the code.  These are more or less the equivalent of upstream
developers.  Documentation ranges from mediocre to non-existent.  You
can start writing reasonably well in a couple of weeks, but you may
paint yourself into corners that you have trouble getting out of.
It is really hard to say how long this will take.  It depends on 
problem domain and how good your 'feel' is.  Because what I have
been doing until recently is not all that amenable to pluggable products,
I am just starting this process.  It is not a lot harder, but you have
to understand the machinery better and have much more to look at.

Finally, there are Zope Core Developers.
These are like the kernel hackers.  If you need this level of proficiency,
particularly as an 'outsider', budget a couple of years.  You need to
read python very well, have considerable overall knowledge of the 
project as a whole, and be able to keep up with lots of very smart
programmers.

Jim Penny