NYCPHP Meetup

[Andrew Yochum]

On Wed, Apr 14, 2004 at 12:18:59PM -0400, Joel De Gan wrote:
> On Wed, 2004-04-14 at 10:56, jon baer wrote:
> > Everyone seems to talk about Zope/Plone/Python and im trying to figure out
> > if its worth learning and worth applying to CMS-based stuff I have now ...
> 
> I would say that is not a good "reason" to learn.

The rest of this thread has focused on Python, and is ignoring the CMS part of
your question so I'll try to address that a bit...  Zope/Plone/CMF has a lot of
ideas and techniques to offer you in terms of frameworks and CMSs.

Zope provides a application framework to build applications, which is an area
that PHP distinctly lacks a strong leader in.  You may get hooked on Zope
features like granular permissioning, acquisition, automatically persistent
objects, and built-in templating (ZPT) and try to replicate them in PHP.

CMF/Plone is a nice CMS app built on that framework, taking advantage of Zope's
facilities while at the same time putting a user-friendly face on the
not-so-user-friendly ZMI.  The functionality it provides or can provide with
some additional work is far beyond anything that I've seen accomplished with
open sources PHP CMSs as easily, such as powerful workflows, versioning, roles,
etc.

Custom Zope/CMF/Plone development can be hard to break into.  In addition to
learning Python, you're learning a whole new method of building applications in
Zope's framework and integrating with Zope products.  Some of Zope and Zope
products are poorly documented, if at all, which can be very aggravating and
time-consuming.  How much of this affects you depends on what you wish to do
with Zope/CMF/Plone.  If you use it out of the box, you may not have much
difficulty at all, otherwise be prepared for the possibility of some long
archaeological digs through source.

Overall, I'd answer your question with a "Yes", with the above warning.

HTH,
Andrew