Re: A Problem

On Tue, Dec 04, 2001 at 08:47:21AM -0600, Stephan Richter wrote:
> Hello everyone,
> 
> I looked into the Mailman code in some more detail and everything should be 
> doable, except one thing: The wrapper (the binary the receives the original 
> mail) calls a Python script that then loads the Mailing List. But how in 
> the world are we going to get the script tap into the Zope instance.

My suggestion would be not to worry about it for our initial attempt.
Let's not bite off more than we can chew and then stagnate like every
other Zope/Mailman integration effort I've ever seen.

For the first stage, let's just focus on using Zope for mailing list
management:

- list creation
- list management (options, etc)
- membership management
- list deletion

I think if we do this, and get some really nice interfaces and pages
built that it will satisfy the needs of 80% of the people who want
this product.

> I thought of the following approaches:
> 
> 1. implement sendmail in Zope -- too much time required, but coolest 
> solution

Yikes!  Strikes me as *way* too much overkill, and a great way to
introduce thousands of security vulnerabilities into Zope.  Let Zope
do it's good at (web-applications), and let MTAs do what they're good
at (mail receipt/delivery).  We'll just find a way to make them talk.

> 2. use XML-RPC -- we can then send only data over, which is bad; mmmh, or 
> we send the mail via XML-RPC, instead the MailList.

I think this hold promise, although there may be some overhead.

> 3. use ZEO -- I do not know whether this will work.

I assume by "use ZEO", you mean "use whatever means ZEO does to access
the ZODB directly" ?  Sounds like it could work.  I don't know much
about it though.

> Any other suggestions?

Well, just the one I mentioned above:

4) Don't worry about it for our first implementation  :)


--Brent


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"The programmer, like the poet, works only slightly removed from pure
 thought-stuff.  He builds his castles in the air, from air, creating
 by exertion of the imagination.  Few media of creation are so
 flexible, so easy to polish and rework, so readily capable of
 realizing grand conceptual structures."
                        -- Frederick Brooks, Jr., The Mythical Man Month