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

[Philipp von Weitershausen]

dev at projekt01.ch wrote:
>> 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...
> 
> If you take a closer look at this package and you will see that each 
> subpackage is well documented.

Right. But that information isn't easily accessible. You have to go to
zope.generic/trunk/src/zope/generic/foobar. That's FIVE directory layers
down from zope.generic!

Another question I raise: Why are there subpackages in the first place?
And what's the rationale for calling it 'generic'. It's be like calling
it 'zope.fast' or 'zope.easy': you get no idea about the contents of the
package. Of course, I know why it's called 'zope.generic'. Because it's
a package *collection*. I think package collections (e.g. like zope.app
or zope.products which we used to have some years ago) are a mistake...

> The generic package collection is/was developed/mentained by Dominik.
> The zope.generic sub-package are very well layered and have clear
> dependency that's the reason why they are containd in a collection
> package. I'm not fimilar with the state of the 'generic' project
> right now. But it's a really cool concept.

I'm not convinced that easily :). Perhaps sketching out what it really
is and what its purpose is would help.

>> * 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?
> 
> The z3c top level package is a namespace for additional packages
> where I and Bernd started to use at the SwissEasterSprint. 

Great. This should be written down somewhere. (I'm not blaming you for
not having done this; we have no rule for this right now. I think we
should have a rule, though).

>> - 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.
> 
> Not started, just make progress in what allready started with 
> Stephans proposal and the ZSCP implementation ;-)
> 
> Yes, I agree
> Perhaps you can check the proposal and see what we did in
> http://svn.zope.org/zf.zscp/. I guess there is more to implement
> but right now it's working and very professional looking.
> Thanks to Kamal Gill for the great desing work!

I'm not as much looking for a website that gathers all the ZSCP
information as much as for guidelines that help us maintain a certain
quality of documentation within the repository.

>> - 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).
> 
> I really hope that we adapt the prosess described in Stephans
> ZSCP proposal.
> 
> http://svn.zope.org/zf.zscp/trunk/src/zf/zscp/ProcessAndRepository.txt?rev=6
> 6671&view=markup
> 
> Whould be cool if we could make progress on what Stephan started
> with the proposal and your ideas.

Yup. I'll reiterate over Stephan's proposal once again and provide my
comments.

Philipp