[Zope] Desktop Zope. RFC. (long)

[Paul T (spk)]

I'm working on some desktop 'product', 
which consists of  .NET  UI client and 
Zope server both running on the *same* 
Windows computer.

Zope provides storage, publishing and 
(maybe) security, .NET client provides the  'neat' 
UI and some other things.

Yesterday, I found the rather old rant
by Dave Winer :

http://davenet.userland.com/2001/01/04/desktopWebsites

He is excited about the 'Desktop Website'.

I don't  quite understand what is he
*really* talking about - the rant is rather 
fuzzy. As to Radio itself - I don't *really* like it
(I tried).

However,  I *do* see some scenarious, how can 
'Desktop Website' may be interesting. I can elaborate 
of some scenarios, but I think that would be 
off-topic and may be misleading.

Now the purpose of this RFC.

I can fork a branch that would be someting like 

'Zope for those, who have no dedicated server'.

How it may look like. 

In the scenario described below, 'User' 
is some person connected to the Internet.
The twist is that the person may be 
even on a dialup connection ( no static IP
required, no DNS e t.c. )

1. User downloads the .NET runtime to any Windows 
comp. User downloads and installs 
Windows Zope binary - pretty easy -  any person
can do that.

2. User downloads the tiny executable, which 
lives in a system tray and does some magic.
Let's say that the executable looks almost 
exactly like Yahoo Messenger. (It displays 
your 'freinds').

The difference with yahoo messenger is that 
when you click on the 'friend' - you can *browse* 
the guy's Desktop Zope ( instead of, or together with 
sending  the message ).

Theoretically, that would allow communities of 
people to share the documents e t.c. even in 
the situation when there is no 'server'. 

With Desktop Zope - anybody has a server.

Possibilities are endless, but some stuff I have 
in mind is *hard* to implement on this framework.

What is *easy* to implement is :

1. Looks like Yahoo Mesenger 
2. You can browse your friends who are online.
3. Eventually - I will simplify the product installation 
procedure, so that installing the new product 
into Desktop Zope would be a single click
( It is already relatively easy for some people, but 
I think that I know how to improve it significantly)

The question I have :

If the thing described above would exist today, 
would you install it ?

The situation is that I have a dedicated server 
running Zope on a decent connection 
( and the dedicated server also runs a *lot* of 
other things, including Java/XSLT e t.c. all playing 
together with Zope) so - for me - personally - it would 
not make much  sense to go for Desktop Zope.

However, I think  that there may be some people 
out there who may like to play with Desktop Zope.

So. If you are interested and/or know anybody 
who may be interested in the thing described 
above - could you please send me an email?

If there would be few people willing to install the thing and 
to form a first tiny community ( say - 5 people? ) - then 
I would  implement it and then - who knows... 

Thanks.

Rgds.Paul.

http://www.pault.com
http://www.linkpot.com
http://www.pault.com/hgrab