[Zope3-dev] Re: Better access to APIs in paths

[Jon Whitener]

I'm too shallow a Zope user to follow the reasoning behind all the ++ 
and @@ business, but I can tell you one thing for sure, the easy Zope 2 
ZPT path syntax is one of the most powerful and useful aspects of Zope 
for me.

The more ++@@syntax@@++ you can hide from "Content Management" people, 
the better.  Zope 2 path syntax makes sense to me, whereas

   context/++api++title

is already making me nervous.  For an end user like me, the change to 
the above from "context/title_or_id" is very unattractive.

Jeffrey P Shell wrote:
> On Sunday, February 23, 2003, at 07:23  AM, Jim Fulton wrote:

[...]
> Can 'context/++api++' be bound in pagetemplates?  Like:

> <tal:setup define="global api global/++api++" />

> then later:

> <h1 tal:content="api/title">foo</h1>

The above would be a little better.

[...]
> Typing in all those pluses could get tiresome.  At the same time, coming 
> up with too many shortcuts could take back into murky waters ('@@' is 
> nice, but I'm afraid too many more different notations could turn path 
> expressions into perlish expressions, requiring the user in this 
> scenario to have to remember the difference between '@@' and '++' and 
> anything else we come up with; not to mention the dynamic path expansion 
> stuff (context/?foo/blat) that I've grown quite fond of in current ZPT).
[...]

I second the above.

> This seems to be the area where "explicit is better than implicit" gets 
> yucky.  I've been looking at the ++ and @@ signs in fear already, and I 
> hope that other Zope 2 migrators don't flinch too strongly when they 
> come across them.
[...]

I know it's based on my inexperience with Zope 3 ideas, but I'm 
flinching and think others will too.

Jon Whitener
Detroit Michigan USA