Re: Goals and next steps?

>Thanks for the follow up about the Zope - Mailman integration project
>(which is now called "Zmailman" I gather).  Thanks, too, for setting
>up the zmailman list.  Who else is helping us?

Yes, ZMailman sounded like a better name. No problem with the setup...

>Maybe before I do that we could talk about our project goals?

Sure.

>What I really need is a better system for managing our mailing lists at
>EcoAccess.

Okay, that is my goal as well!!!

>Possible Goal A: Quick and dirty Zmailman hack?
>The goal would be just to get Mailman 2.0.8 and Zope 2.3.3 to work
>together.  To achieve this goal we could download the code for Mailman
>2.0.8, study its API, and write a few DTML screens that replace the CGI
>part of Mailman.  We would not plan to continue to support or improve
>Zmailman after we got it working.

Well, if we replace the CGI with DTML/ZPT, then we have to rewrite 
everything as soon as we port the data structures. So we should start with 
them.

>Possible Goal B: Fork Zmailman?
>The goal would be to take some version of Mailman and fork from the main
>Mailman project.  We'd work on our fork independently of the other Mailman
>hackers, with the goal of continuing to support and improve Zmailman.

I am against this. The community is already thin, so I want to use as much 
additional programming power I can get and the Mailman people will help us...

>Possible Goal C: Improve Mailman?
>The goal would be to add Zope support to Mailman.  We'd work with the
>other Mailman hackers.  It would make the most sense to branch from the
>Mailman CVS, either the latest Mailman 2.0.x release or the new Mailman
>2.1 beta.  Of course, maybe the other Mailman hackers don't want to
>add Zope support to Mailman, in which case we won't be able to achieve
>this goal.

This approach I like best; however, all I want to do is to offer an 
alternative. If the Mailman people do not want to use the Zope version, we 
just let them keep theirs. No problem; I just want to provide new storage 
hooks, so we can "plug-in" Zope and the ZODB.

>we're aiming for now.  EcoAccess runs Python 1.5.2, so anything which
>forces us into Python 2.x would not be our top choice.  We run
>Zope 2.3.3 and Mailman 2.0.8 because they do not require Python 2.x.
>Does Mailman 2.1 require Python 2.x?

Well, I think this is very unpractical. You should not develop a new 
product on an old version of Zope. I think we should go with Zope 2.5. I 
will help you to install an independent version of Python and Zope, so you 
will not notice any problems.

>I would like to hear thoughts about the goals for Zmailman from anyone
>else who is interested in working on it.

Yep, me too. :-)

>P.O. Box 2823, Durham, NC 27715-2823    phone: 919.419-8567

I will give you a call in the morning.

Regards,
Stephan

--
Stephan Richter
CBU - Physics and Chemistry Student
Web2k - Web Design/Development & Technical Project Management