[Zope3-dev] Last chance to comment on Simplify skinning

[Gary Poster]

On Feb 15, 2006, at 6:03 AM, Philipp von Weitershausen wrote:

> Hi there,
>
> a while back I wrote a proposal on simplifying the skinning system
> (http://dev.zope.org/Zope3/SimplifySkinning). I got a lot of useful
> feedback which in turn made me update the proposal. Since then I  
> haven't
> heard much comments. I would like to start implementing it soon,
> especially since the time schedule has been moved up one month. Please
> speak up now if you got any remaining comments.
>
> Silence is assent :).

I guess I'm +0 on your current proposal, and +1 on its goals.

I like many parts of it.  I didn't like the fact that the zcml ended  
up being longer.  I didn't love that people had to start asking  
questions about interface types in order to register a skin.   
Interface types are a cost--another layer of abstraction, another  
potentially mind-blowing thing to explain.

You are already suggesting changing the zcml, and I'd like to see a  
compromise between the brevity of the current zcml and the conceptual  
clarity of your proposed changes.

I tried to brainstorm, but didn't love what I came up with.  Maybe it  
can take us somewhere.  What if we still deprecated browser:layer but  
kept a redefined version of browser:skin?  Then your zcml--

       <interface
           interface=".interfaces.ShanghaiSkin"
           type="zope.publisher.interfaces.browser.IBrowserSkinType"
           />

       <utility
           component=".interfaces.ShanghaiSkin"
           provides="zope.publisher.interfaces.browser.IBrowserSkinType"
           name="ShanghaiSkin"
           />

could become

      <browser:skin component=".interfaces.ShanghaiSkin"  
name="ShanghaiSkin" />

The rest of your example would remain the same.

It doesn't accomplish everything you set out to do, and that's a  
shame, but it feels like a compromise with a reasonable counter- 
argument: defining skins is a basic task often introduced early on  
with teaching Zope, and it's a shame to have to bloat the zcml and  
teach advanced topics too soon.

I'd like to at least get the <interface...> zcml out of this story.

Gary