[Zope3-Users] Re: Zope 3 Developer's LiveBook

[Paul Dumais]

Hi all, here is a callout for input on creating a zope livebook.

I have familiarized myself with docbook and am gung ho. I am fairly
new to zope3, so I will not be much help with content. I will be good
at trying out things and keeping the document up to date.

I decided to go with darcs for now, we can move to svn if darcs
doesn't work for most people.

I have a repo at z3book.unstate.ca. You can do: "darcs get
http://z3book.unstate.ca" to get the book (but there's nothing
there!).

For now I am hoping to get suggestoins on how the book should be laid out.
What about something like:

<< preface >>
<< Basic Usage >>
<< Framework Overview >>
<< Common Development Patterns >>
<< Content Components >>

I really have no clue. I was hoping that a zope3 guru could suggest
how the parts could be best laid out. It seems to me that it is very
tricky to have an encyclopedic resource for power users as well as
easy to follow trails for newbies who are likely to get lost in the
woods.

I like the idea of trails (do the java tutorials still do this?). If a
newbie wants to explore the forest that is zope 3, she will want to
use the most well worn trails first and be confident to return home
before it gets dark. Later, when she gets a sense of the lay of the
land, she can venture deep on longer and less well-used tracks.

I have followed a bit of the discussion regarding example apps. I
really appreciated Benji York's "Hello World" app. It was easy to
follow and left me feelling less overwhelmed than the Zope 3 Tutorial
or the Zope 3 Book by Stephen Richter (I got lost and scared and have
not gone back - though to be fair they are still the best on-line
sources for more in depth zope 3 info). It also did a good job
covering topics in just enough detail. I also appreciated that it was
relatively up to date (Zope 3.2 apha?). Good examples could serve to
as a guide to how to layout this book. Topics could be introduced
gradually as the examples become more complicated. Also, topics could
be covered in more detail as examples are shown which best demonstrate
their use.

Anyway, let me know what you think.
For right now ideas on overall layout and a progression of example
apps would be most appreciated.

For those of you who have already authored tutorials, books, articles,
tips, etc. It would be most excellent if you could offer them up
(permission to use and alter, etc). Icing on the cake would be if you
could suggest where in the zope 3 book you envision seeing your info.
A cherry on top would be if you could update the information for the
current release.

Thanks and good night.

Paul Dumais