Zope3 name

It sounds like we're making progress but many important and even basic 
migration issues remain unresolved.

Paul Everitt wrote:
 >> 5) Will ZC participate in the ongoing development of Zope 2 and CMF,
 >> keeping it "active" with (reasonably compelling) features until the 
time
 >> Zope 3 is capable of doing all that Zope 2 + CMF can do?
 >
 >Yes.

Firm.  Good.

 >The bottom
 >line has always been that we will provide tools to allow people to 
leverage
 >their investment in Zope 2.

Hmm, that would be useful but potentially the poor stepchild to the 
approaches which you suggest below.  It's important to provide guidance 
about which approach(es) will be supported and required.

It would also be nice if you could provide some sense of what tools 
would be required and how sophisticated such tools would be.  Are they 
conversion (zope2->zope3) tools?  How complicated is the conversion?  
Do they leave some stuff to be done manually?  What percentage would 
they convert? (99%, 95% 90%, 75%?)  Any manual stuff left would be 
flagged and...?  Easy?  Challenging?  Tricky?

If these are simple transformations, it sounds like a (nearly) 
non-issue.  If they're complex, that's a whole 'nother beast entirely.  
Some gauge of the complexity would be desirable (short of committing to 
back/forward compatibility, below.

 >> 1) Will Zope 3 support the Zope 2 API, or even a subset?
 >
 >This has not been decided, but the likelihood is that it will.
 >
 >> 2) Will Zope 2 support the Zope 3 API, or even a subset?  (This is
 >> discussed below.)
 >
 >This has not been decided, but the likelihood is that it will.
 >[...]
 >> If meaningful parts of Zope 3
 >> are introduced back into Zope 2, then we're in good shape.
 >
 >It is likely that this will be the approach used.

These approaches are the most desirable and smoothest.  Your intentions 
for such compatibility support sound promising.  It would be nice to 
have definite information whether these will be provided, *and* to what 
extent: full, 99%, 95%, 90%, 75%?  Perhaps a list of technologies which 
will have the support, and a list of the features which will not (if 
such is known)?  This last question is mute if backwards compatibility 
will be full, with a good starting base of forward compatibility from 
zope2.

Your firm guidance is essential.

 >The goal is to make transition as smooth as possible.

Excellent.

 >I want to
 >put off deciding for sure on the technical approach until after
 >the beta.
 >[...]
 >The technical details of the transition have been defered.

How long until these decisions will be made?  When is beta expected (I 
assume this refers to the current "Zope3 1.0 beta" and that we're 
currently on something like Zope3 1.0 alpha?)?  (This whole premature 
alpha/beta is another issue.)

Perhaps we should put off heavy, detailed migration discussions and 
planning until some of these basic decisions are made?  I think a lot 
of the community would love firm answers to these questions, and few 
(any?) are interested on making migration strategy commitments or 
publishing migrations strategies on zope-coders' behalf, without firm 
direction from the papal head.

 >> 4) During 2003, developers will have three APIs to choose from (Zope 
2,
 >> CMF, Zope 3).  Will they know when to choose one versus the other?
 >
 >They have already been given some good guidelines.  I think that the 
community
 >could contribute by helping to package this information and make it 
readily
 >available.

It would be helpful for a list of these resources so the community 
knows the extent of the working set you'd like packaged.  Would it be 
possible to provide pointers, summarize, whatever a comprehensive list 
of these guidelines?

Thanks,

= Joe =