[Zope3-dev] Publisher test harness for new protocol development

[Stephan Richter]

Hello Jeff,

>But in lieu of documentation, which might be premature at this point,
>could one of you who are very familiar with the new framework create a
>protocol development test harness for it?

As Shane said, you look into Zope.Server. It would be best to check out the 
Zope-3x-Server branch for that, since it contains the new restructured 
Server code. It also has already a bunch of interfaces more that attempt to 
explain what is happening. As soon as I know the system a little better, 
Shane and I will work on some collaboration diagrams describing the process.

>If it is possible, it would probably make the process easiest if the end
>point of a protocol's handler when run in the test harness was just a
>reflection string of the method and parameters that would call into
>Zope3 objects if run normally. The protocol developer could override
>response methods to continue a conversation with a client that expected
>folder names, for example. You'd be able to observe what a given client
>program would call on Zope in a given situation, to compare it with the
>relevant RFC document.

I think your model is a little too simplistic for server development, but 
in general all of this stuff works already like that.

>It would lower the entry barriers for people new to protocol programming
>and/or Zope(3) core development. We'll get support for more protocols
>out of it. If Zope3 is going to encourage support for many protocols on
>a new and as-yet undocumented framework, a self-contained protocol
>conversation and debugging technique maintained as part of the /test
>suite will be something everyone will benefit from long after the
>initial Zope3 release.

We try to do that, but I think developing a protocol is not as easy as you 
portray it. I would really encourage you to look at the existing code, 
since I think Shane did a wonderful(!) job in developing the framework. It 
would be great, if you could start developing the implementation of another 
protocol.

BTW, I have never written a server either. So I am in the same boat as 
anyone else.

Regards,
Stephan

--
Stephan Richter
CBU - Physics and Chemistry Student
Web2k - Web Design/Development & Technical Project Management