[Zope3-Users] beginning orientation

[Stephan Richter]

On Thursday 16 December 2004 16:27, Martin Blais wrote:
> i really think that zope documentation would benefit a great deal in
> drawing analogies with common desktop applications and the zope
> framework.  a lot more people with a desktop app programming
> background might be interested in using it  if they could cut thru
> some of the ways that web app frameworks are doing things, bridge the
> gap.  specifically, a chapter that addresses the following items would
> have helped *a lot*:

This assumes that the documentation writers know about desktop app 
development. For example, I don't, so I cannot write about it. I think Zope 3 
is getting closer to the way desktop app development works, but no Web 
framework is quiet there yet. I think Jim's Bobo experiments hold a lot of 
promise here.

> - explaining the differences in the interaction that occurs between
> the client and the server (possibly including the mechanisms of
> GET/POST even though it is a bit basic);

Our documentation target audience is assumed to know basic HTTP and CGI 
interactions. There are just not enough resources available to address other 
audiences.

> - explaining how exactly the display of forms is tied to calling of
> methods on the server, what sequence it occurs in;

Well, think about it this way. Each page causes a particular method to be 
called. That's it. Everything else is specific to your configuration. For 
Page Templates, the __call__ method is called and the ZPT code is executed 
that calls other methods that are available via the view.

> - making more of a separation between the views (html forms), its
> input data, the handling code, and the data that is stored in the
> database.

I think Zope 3 accomplishes this very well, especially with regard to other 
Web technologies.

> additionally there are items that i still do not understand clearly:
>
> - if there is a separation between handling code and rendering code,
> how does handling code pass information specific to that handling to
> the rendering code that gets returned after handling a request?

What is handling code?

> - how can i implement an input form (a view, i guess) without tying it
> to a data type in the database?  say, just some input form, calling a
> method and then i do whatever with the input data (maybe even dropping
> some of it)

This functionality is not available in Zope X3 3.0, but will be available in 
3.1.

Regards,
Stephan
-- 
Stephan Richter
CBU Physics & Chemistry (B.S.) / Tufts Physics (Ph.D. student)
Web2k - Web Software Design, Development and Training