Re: For whom and what is Zope 2/3?

Jon Whitener wrote:

> - For whom is Zope 3? 


Zope 3 will replace Zope 2.  Its ultimate audience is exactly the same 
at that for Zope 2.  This audience includes:

  - business decision makers who need to solve common web problems
    quickly
  - web content managers
  - mainly 'front-end' developers who want to add rich functionality
    (e.g. site searches, discussions) to their templates
  - 'back-end' developers who want a RAD environment for solving
    complex problems, usually with a strong web aspect
  - application itegrators (thanks to python as a 'glue' language)

It does not (currently) include:

  - decision makers who need certain specific technologies, e.g. .NET,
    Java
  - certain highly-distributed enterprise-scale asynchronous
    security-critical applications

 > - For what is Zope 3?

Zope 2 has been hitting against certain (obscure to many) ceilings for 
some time now (q.v. ZPatterns).  Those to whom these problems are not 
obscure are the 'back-end,' source-hacking developers mentioned above. 
Zope 3 is currently aimed at them.

Zope 3 is an attempt to clean up Zope 2.  Its current focus is on 
fundamentally sound technical design following best-practice learned 
from developing in Zope 2.  It provides a set of programming metaphors 
which encourage code re-use.

The real benefits of Zope 3 to the majority of users will only become 
apparent over time, as the new approach bears fruit.  Primarily, the 
long-term maintainability of code written using Zope 3 will improve 
significantly, with knock-on effects for the extensibility and stability 
of this code.

It also makes possible radically improved ways of developing through the 
web, among other things.

Most of the obvious benefits to non-Zope-hackers are only just stopping 
being science fiction.  Personally, I expect to see the biggest benefits 
as emergent phenomena somewhere along the development cycle, perhaps not 
until 2004.  Currently, and correctly IMO, Zope 3 is just concentrating 
on sound technical footings.

In short, I believe that the obvious, no-brainer benefits of Zope 3 to 
decision makers will not become apparent for some time, and will most 
likely appear in a piecemeal fashion.  The most likely pattern is that 
someone will develop a "killer app", like a squishdot or a plone, which 
will drive uptake.  The core technical benefits of the *framework* will 
not be of relevance to the majority of Zope2 users for a long time, IMO.

 > As a complement, how do the answers differ when we switch all the '2's
 > and '3's above?

I'll let someone else tackle that...

seb