[Zope3-dev] What are zope.generic, z3c, ldapauth, et.al.?

[Philipp von Weitershausen]

Hi there,

I see a few packages lurking in svn.zope.org that I can't make much
sense of:

* For example, what is zope.generic? I can't find a README.txt anywhere
in the top-level directories. What I *can* see is that it seems to be
another big bag for subpackages like zope.app. I thought we were getting
rid of those? I'm also wondering why it carries the 'zope' top-level
namespaces. Judging from the checkins, it seems to be a Dominik + Roger
project. Last but not least there's the name "generic" that I can't make
much sense of...

* For example, what does the 'z3c' namespace package stand for? Who's
behind this stuff? And why does it sometimes use 'sandbox' or 'Sandbox'
instead of or in parallel of 'trunk' for its main development branch?

* For example, is ldapauth still maintained? Is it bitrotting? Can it go
away?


So, there you have typical cases of three problems I currently see with
stuff in svn.zope.org:

* Uncontrolled package proliferation w/o consistent naming

* Inconsistent use of subversion conventions

* Undocumented packages (no package metadata available)


Basically, what I'm really asking is:

- Do other people also think it'd be a good idea to come up with some
repository guidelines? Stephan had a proposal about specifying package
metadata and code maturity/quality, I think it's worth working towards
easily accessible info like that. If others agree, then let's get started.

- Should this be part of the Zope Foundation development process (which
again seems to be worked out by the Zope Management Organization)? If
so, I'll hereby volunteer to join such a committee and contribute my
ideas (especially on package organization in the repository and the
associated development process).

Philipp