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

[Shane Hathaway]

Jim Fulton wrote:
> Shane Hathaway wrote:
>  >
> 
> ...
> 
>> Namespaces appeal to me in this context because you already have to be 
>> aware of namespaces in order to write page templates (and, in the 
>> not-too-distant future, XHTML).
> 
> 
> People never write namespaces in zpt, because they hate to.
> Early on, we required namespace declarations and people hated them.
> 
>  > So this proposal would let new users
> 
>> move forward without learning many new concepts.
> 
> 
> Most zpt users don't know what xml namespaces are.

Right, and that's why some implicit namespaces (like "dc" and "zope") 
might be useful.  However, we're both aware of the problems that 
implicit namespaces can cause, so that's a concern.

But I would suggest that people's dislike for the TAL and METAL 
namespaces may not apply here.  "tal:" and "metal:" are like Python 
builtin names, in that they should always be recognized, whereas this 
new feature is more like a Python import statement, in that the 
namespace declaration gives the template access to some special feature 
of the system that might not always be available.

Also, like Steve and Barry are discussing, namespaces don't have to 
point to HTTP resources. 
"zope.app.interfaces.dublincore.IZopeDublinCore" is a perfectly good 
namespace, though it's redundant, since there is already a namespace for 
dublin core.

Shane