[Zope] The Zope Software Certification Program and Common Repository Proposal

[Andrew Milton]

+-------[ Stephan Richter ]----------------------
| Hello everyone,
| 
| With the development of Zope 3, the Zope developers committed to a new 
| development process and higher software quality guidelines. With the adoption 
| of Zope 3 technologies in the wider Zope community, we should also start 
| using the process for third party package development.
| 
| I have spent the last two weeks working on a proposal that defines a Zope 
| Software Certification Program (ZSCP) and a Common Repository that implements 
| this process. The proposal is attached to this mail. I welcome any comments 
| about it!

So in order to even get your Open Source package LISTED, you have to sign over 
the rights of your code to Zope Corp (currently, Zope Foundation later), and then
check it into the svn respository. 

Is this is correct? So you're proposing that the Zope Foundation will not even 
mention other Open Source code that isn't actually owned and controlled by the 
Zope Foundation?

I think there needs to be some other certification process that doesn't
require the code to be owned by someone other than the original authors.

Having a standard Zope package format would be far far more useful to the users at 
large, along with the associated tools (so developers can create compliant
zope packages, and users can install packages actually using Zope). Packaging
tools can then enforce certain restrictions automatically and create a
manifest.

If you had that, then that would certainly ease adding 'stuff' to the
'certified' repository, getting to LISTED level would be automatic.

You might want to change the word Certification to Compliance. So, a package
Complies with the Common Repository Standards, rather than is Certified By
Zope Foundation. Certification implies a level of dilligence I don't think is
actually being applied by this proposal.

-- 
Andrew Milton
akm at theinternet.com.au