[Zope] Does anyone care whether we deprecate ZClasses?

[Dieter Maurer]

Jonathan Cyr wrote at 2005-4-6 16:06 -0400:
>... just show me how under-represented that beginner and intermediate 
>Zope developers use this list... and then I think, perhaps there aren't 
>any, just me and a few others... and if that's the case, Zope's screwed, 
>and the horse I rode in on.

Do not worry too much!

Jim proposed to keep ZClasses alive until (at least) Zope 2.10.
And he asks whether there is enough interest to keep them longer...

If the Zope 2 releases progress in the same speed seen recently,
then Zope 2.10 will come in 4 to 6 years. That's a lot of time.
Of course, it is planned that future release cycles are much shorter
(one release every 6 months) but I do not yet buy that this will
indeed happen. Almost all releases were planned much earlier
than they happened.


And, we can keep ZClasses alive, at least until the next major
"Persistency" shakeup (after Jim made them working again for
the current "Persistency" shakeup) -- even when they are no longer
in the core.


In fact, I have had ten times more problems with Archetypes (which
I use now) than with ZClasses (which I used formerly).
It is true (and sad) that there are no unit tests for ZClasses
but ZClasses just broke twice in the past across releases
and the community quickly found
workarounds. These fixes were found much faster than those
for the security problems which were introduced from time to
time into Zope through security shakeups -- despite the fact
that there are unit tests for the security subsystem.


Thus, the right approach (in my view) is that all users
of ZClasses tell Jim, that ZClasses are used and interesting.
ZClasses may nevertheless get deprecated but probably kept
longer then Zope 2.10 unless they cause major problems.


For new projects, you should investigate the new options.
Product development will get much simpler with Zope3 technology
(and its schemas and views). Currently, there is no TTW
("Through The Web") development in Zope3 land, but that is planned.
In about 2 to 4 years, we may have new ZClass like
functionality implemented with Zope3 technology.
And I am quite confident that the old ZClasses will live til
then...


>And so here's the confession... "Hello, I'm Jon... I've used Zope for 2 
>years, and I can't help others program high-level Python OOP 
>tools/platform resources in a propriety web content management server.  
>I only can support their efforts when the occasional mailing list 
>opportunities present themselves."

That's fine. Continue with this support!


Do not worry too much about ZClasses. They will stay
for a significant time because Jim plans to take the next
major hurdle (thank you, Jim!).
After that, probably only small changes will
be necessary -- as in the past. We, the ZClass users, can
manage these minor changes -- as we did in the past.

-- 
Dieter