[Zope3-dev] service names

[Gary Poster]

Steve Alexander wrote:
> 
>>>> However publication of an event does not necessarily imply any kind 
>>>> of Notification.
>>
>>
>> Seems to me like "publication" implies the whole delivery process from
>> initiation to delivery (notification).  Seems like "dispatch" is the
>> other side from notification - how about "EventDispatch" (or maybe
>> "EventDispatching")?
> 
> 
> I like this. If this change is made, should the method used by client 
> code to ask the service to take care of an event still be called 
> publish(event), or should it be called dispatch(event) ?
> 
> 
> A few weeks ago, Gary Poster passed on to me that Matt Kromer at ZC 
> suggested 'signal' rather than 'event' to describe these framework-level 
> notifications. The advantage of 'signal' is that it avoids confusion 
> with human-experience kinds of events like calendar events, two-day 
> events etc. that are common in various kinds of content management.
> So, we might have the 'SignalDispatch' and the 'SignalSubscription' 
> services.
> 
> I think this idea has some merit, and I'd like to see others' opinions 
> on it.

Even if no one has subscribed to your newspaper, and no one buys it, you 
can still say you publish it.  It's just a sad, forlorn publication that 
goes by unnoticed.  :-)

The publication service in fact will notify any subscribers to a given 
publication, as part of its contract; just because no one has subscribed 
does not, to my mind, mean a publication has not taken place.

This is a "when a tree falls in a forest and no one is there to hear it, 
does it make a sound" kind of question, for which we all will have our 
own philosophical viewpoints.  The only compelling argument to change 
the name (again) would be for a significant gain in clarity. 
"EventDispatch" has the same or less immediate understandability than 
"EventPublication" in my mind.  I don't see the win, or the need.

I'm -1 on "Dispatch".

As to "Signal", I like it, but I remember two arguments against it, 
raised on the list and in other conversations.  First, some argued that 
the word connotes a very small message within the Unix world, as opposed 
to the robust messages that our objects will allow.  Second, others 
pointed out that "event" already is used in a variety of OO systems to 
mean what it means for us now.

I don't find the first argument particularly compelling, but the second 
grabs my attention: we are all concerned with making Zope 3 as 
"friendly" as possible to new developers and users familiar with other 
similar systems.  I wish our trade's vernacular had not settled on 
"event", because of the possible confusion with calendar events, but I 
suppose it has.

So I also give a -1 for "Signal".

Gary