For starters, I must say that the Zope 3 product named z3reload is a real life-saver for a Zope 3 newbie like me. It's pretty easy to install and configure, and works, of course, transparently. Exploring Zope 3 sometimes feels like trying to find a light-switch in a completely dark house and this process is much less painful with automatic reloading of views.

Over and out.

With the little free time I have for myself, I've decided to try to grok Zope 3.

Years ago, I made websites with Zope 2 for a living (for a while), but I quit that job (for reasons that had nothing to do with Zope) and I haven't done anything with Zope ever since. (What stuck with me, of course, was Python.) My memories of Zope 2 were pretty much those of many others: an impressive system, but not quite the ideal web application platform.

Since then, I've been hearing that this new system, Zope 3 or X3, has all the goodies of Zope, but is a programmer friendly web application platform. Sounds good to me, so maybe it's time to find out about that.

I am in the happy position of not having to drag around the historical baggage of Zope 2. I do not have to move from Zope 2 to Zope 3, nor do I have to un-learn much of Zope 2. I'm doing this for a hobby, out of general curiosity. (I can quit whenever I want to.) I'll try to approach Zope 3 as just another web application platforms amongst many others. An old platform as whole, but a new platform to me.

Given the constraints of this hobby, limited resources and especially time, I cannot promise much of this venture, but I hope I can document parts of it.

My motivation to try and understand Zope 3 in particular is the fact that some people have claimed that it makes it easier to reuse code. We all should know by now that code reuse is hardly ever easy, but, given the opportunity, it's something to strive for. It should not be the Holy Grail of programming, but it's damn boring to do the same stuff all over again, one time after another.

I am also hoping to find out that Zope 3 makes web application programming fluent and ultimately fun activity.

Finally, I have no broader context for this venture; I have no job prospects nor opportunities to use Zope 3 in my current day job. I am doing it just for the fun of it.

Let's see.

(Maybe I give up in a day, and you'll never hear another word on this subject from me. That's a possibility, too.)

Off to Benji York's Zope 3 Quick Start Guide, then.