[Zope-dev] Re: [Zope-PTK] PROPOSAL: Splitting ZPatterns into two products

Phillip J. Eby pje@telecommunity.com
Fri, 28 Jul 2000 09:11:40 -0500


At 09:51 AM 7/28/00 +0100, Chris Withers wrote:
>Steve Alexander wrote:
>> "Phillip J. Eby" wrote:
>> > So, I am thinking perhaps I should split ZPatterns into two products:
>> > PlugIns and DataSkins.  
>
>If 'PlugIns' includes plugins, plugin groups and plugin containers, then
>that's a pretty good name :-)

Yes.


>'DataSkins' doesn't mean a lot to me as a name :S
>What components would go into this product?

DataSkins themselves, and all the things that support them.  Data Managers
(Racks and Customizers), Data Manager containers (Specialists and Folders
w/Customization Support), and Data Plug-Ins (Attribute Providers, Sheet
Providers, Triggers, etc.)


>Yup, sounds like a great idea. Hopefulyl Pluggins could get into the
>Zope core ASAP. I reckon they might be quite useful to ZMI mark II :-)

That might be, but the PlugIns part isn't really where it should be before
it could even be proposed to go into the Zope core.  The biggest hurdle
remaining is full ZClass support.  I would like to have it so that if you
base a ZClass on PlugInContainer, you get a tab in the ZClass management
screen where you can add and configure plug-in groups...  and the groups
themselves would be plug-ins, so that you could have specialized forms of
plug-in groups.


>Has anyone done anything with the 'glossary wiki' idea I punted out a
>while back?

I don't believe so.  But I think that splitting the package will make
documentation easier.  Partly because it will allow starting from a fresh
viewpoint that is DataSkins-centric and more use-oriented.  I figure on
leaving the ZPatterns Wiki alone for the most part until the DataSkins docs
start to mature, and then yanking out documentation-type stuff from the
ZPatterns Wiki and re-purposing it to focus on application design, object
modelling, and the like, in the context of the DataSkins and PlugIns packages.