[NCLUG] Zope (was Re: NCLUG Hacking society....)

[Rich Young]

Sean wrote:
> I'm just not making that much progress with getting the web site where I'd
> like it.  At least I have it to the point where chapter champions can edit
> their own pages.  I periodically make a bit of progress on the site.  It's
> functional at least.

	I played with Zope for a while (anything with potential for web/database 
connectivity piques my interest) and found it frustrating -- dtml is a little 
wordy for my taste, I hated using an HTML textarea as an editor, and I never 
felt I "got" the whole object database thingy.  At my best, I was using the 
object database like SSI in apache, except with sensitivity to the document 
location.  I also disliked how, when using it with PoPy and Postgres, the 
ZSQL methods hid my SQL from me while I wrote the page that used it 
(hard to remember field names that way, compared to Cold Fusion.  Though, to 
be fair, it makes it easier to debug your SQL when the query stands alone, 
and Zope/PoPy gives better error msgs).  
	But it's definitely the closest open-source product to Cold Fusion, and I 
think it's got a lot of potential.  I always felt like if I just understood 
it better, I could really make stuff happen.  (Also thought it might help a 
lot if I knew python....) The lack of solid docs was frustrating, though that 
New Riders book has come out since then and I haven't had a chance to look at 
it.  Maybe it's time to check the book out and give zope another chance.

--Rich 
(who has managed to map backspace onto the five/percent key, which seems like 
progress in a twisted sort of way: at least I've proven I can change the 
bloody map!)