[Plone-conference] Openspace: growing plone | as a brand

Peter Jacobs Peter.Jacobs at kuleuven.be
Fri Oct 24 09:47:49 UTC 2014


> Namens Jean Jordaan

> People aren't just slinging code, they're building a commons that allows
> them to make a living in a good way: that includes meeting for sprints all
> over the world, working together because of mutual respect and shared
> values,
> learning from different cultures, contributing at their level of comfort or
> expertise.

Very true and valuable.. 
I have not participated that much, but have always felt very welcome!

Also, there is some bashing and blaming on consultants In this thread, which I think is a bit over the top. We use Plone to provide a large service to our university, with the help of a group of very knowledgeable and cooperative consultants who care a lot about the community, and help us build up expertise so we can manage the system on our own.
It seems to me that during the years people in the community have moved up from code hacker to consultant/service provider, which is a very logical step, and valuable for Plone. The only thing missing is new generations of young code hackers coming in to bring new ideas and challenge the status-quo?

> 
> > Unfortunately what is left at this time is a big pile of excellent but
> > rapidly aging code (mainly in zope I suspect), that doesn’t invite people to
> > play and experiment as much as before.
> 
> I'm not so comfortable with people easily labeling code as "rapidly aging".
> The goal should be to write code that works fine for at least a decade.
> New and cool should be quite irrelevant to systems meant to be relied on.
> Is it easier to build bridges or dams or buildings, with all their physical
> wear and tear, than to design code? (Might well be! Still, we need to build
> reliable systems.)

Totally agree, let's look at some code then (please correct me if I am wrong):

http://svn.zope.org/Zope/trunk/src/ZServer/medusa/http_server.py?view=log&pathrev=129849
is the code for a central piece of the WMS: the http-server
based on: http://www.nightmare.com/medusa/ (in maintenance since 2002)
It is excellent code that has lasted for more than a decade.

But during the last decade ideas and concepts have evolved, and it is time for a replacement of these core building blocks, no? 
Is there any twenty-something who wants to dive In this code when they have many better alternatives?
(WSGI would be a solution for this particular part, but development has stalled?)

All in all, we are using Plone for a mission critical service, and it has totally delivered on its promise as a large enterprise WMS.  
It is a complex system, that can match complex requirements :-)
But it is time to take a good look at the core engine...

Peter





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