[Zope-PTK] How skins work

[Tres Seaver]

Lucas Hofman wrote:
> 
> > I've been watching the introduction of skins into the PTK, and I'm
> > curious to know what benefits they'll offer. I've been wanting to use
> > the PTK, since it is extremely close to what I'll need for a site
> > which I'm designing, but I'd like to be able to easily upgrade both
> > the PTK and my existing portals without needing to create a new
> > portal, look through each method for changes, apply them to the
> > existing code, etc.
> 
> You might consider waiting a few more months. I started to use PTK 0.7
> about a year ago for exactly the same reasons: it is close to what we
> need. Customization however was much more difficult then anticipated.
> PTK has a rich functionality, and 'turning off' the features you do not
> want without breaking others is something quite difficult.
>
> For sure this was partly caused by python being a new language, but in
> addition the lack of documentation and comments in the code does not
> particularly help. The PTK is not a trivial product; it adds a layer of
> complexity over Zope. Lately I have spent a lot of time re-doing
> customizations because of a changing PTK architecture and interface. At
> times it feels like assembling a car from a warehouse full of parts but
> without manuals or specifications. Every week a few of the parts are
> changed out to make it more challenging...
> 
> Why should one even consider using a toolkit which has not reached any
> maturity? (= is still in a 0.xx version). For me the answers are:
> 1. In the Zope world there are no alternatives
> 2. There is a lot of well working functionality in the PTK which you -if
> you need it- do not have to develop yourself
> 3. The active developers are very responsive to questions.
> 
> I do not regret choosing the PTK, but I hope we soon have a situation
> where CVS is only used for those who want to play with or develop the
> newest features, and that the 'normal' site developers have a tested and
> documented version to build sites with. Bug reporting/fixing would need
> to be done on both production and development versions, like it is done
> for Zope itself.

Thanks for the assessment.  I'd like to clarify a couple of points,
if I may:

 * The skins stuff is aimed dead at the problem of allowing portal
managers
   to make "safe" customizations (ones which they won't have to throw
   away when upgrading the PTK).

 * CVS as the "preferred mode" of delivering the PTK will go away when
we
   have gotten to "1.0" (please have a look at the "roadmap to 1.0",
     http://www.zope.org/Products/PTK/ZWiki/OnePointOh, if you haven't
   already.)

 * We will likely have a branching strategy for managing changes to the
   released version, much like the current Zope strategy.  Getting to
that
   point may wait on us (DC) shifting the way we do CVS (which is in the
   works anyhow).

The jitter you have experienced (0.7 - present) is largely due to the
fact
that we have been using the PTK in consulting engagements, and have
therefore
discovered problems with some of its earlier assumptions;  we tried to
make
a single, "big" incompatibility with the 0.8 release, and to make
subsequent
changes less disruptive.  I hope that the new architecture (and skins!)
make future upgrades saner, too.

Tres.
-- 
===============================================================
Tres Seaver                                tseaver@digicool.com
Digital Creations     "Zope Dealers"       http://www.zope.org