[Zope3-Users] ZCML, practicality, purity (was "Excellent perspective...")

Wade Leftwich wade at leftwich.us
Thu Dec 22 06:59:12 EST 2005


Shane Hathaway wrote:
>
[snip]
> 
> I have a bunch of coworkers who have coded in Java for a long time and
> are ready to branch out.  They're trying out Python, Ruby, C#, etc. They
> want to develop web applications quickly while preserving
> maintainability.  I think the best way for them to do that is to use
> Zope 3.
> 
> Unfortunately, other frameworks like RoR have a big marketing advantage
> over Zope 3 in that they don't use XML configuration files.  That is the
> one of the major features that attract developers to the new frameworks.
>  Even if Zope 3 is technically right to use ZCML, I find it hard to
> convince people to try yet another XML configuration format, especially
> since I've had a lot of trouble with ZCML myself.
> 
> So it's very refreshing to see Zope 3 without ZCML.  I hope the trend
> continues.
> 
> Shane
> 
>  

I know that ZCML has been thoroughly debated, and I am a newcomer to
Zope 3 (though a longtime user of Zope 2 at the scripting level). But
"practicality beats purity" is a good maxim for business decisions as
well as for programming, and marketing requires some business decisions.

If ZCML (a/k/a The Right Way) is keeping fairly smart developers from
trying Z3, then maybe we need an alternative (a/k/a What People Think
They Want).

Would it make sense to publish a recommended way to configure Z3 apps
completely via Python? Just for people who can't get past ZCML?

-- Wade



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