[Product-Developers] Re: Plone Developer Cheatsheet (Was: Re: Where does it hurt?)

[Dylan Jay]

JoAnna Springsteen wrote:
> Short term, sure but incredibly valuable. And if it puts us in a place
> where we can talk about having best practices, then I think that's a
> great place to be.
> Having best practices gives us a much clearer path on what to
> document. In a sense, it's a baseline. You have this one way of doing
> something and this is the way to do it. Easier to document and
> maintain that then a million methods for accomplishing the same goal.
> And no, that doesn't mean we only do it that one way and we rule out
> other methods. Definitely don't want to do it. But a best practice
> helps us teach people where to start, what they really have to know,
> and generally gives them a good foundation once they move on to more
> complex things or pursue other methods.
> I could go on but my entire point is, it's a conversation worth having.

Thats certainly my intent behind it.

First we'll see how if there is conflict and how it can be resolved. 
I'll suspect it will need email notification of changes to really make 
this work (and I don't think openplans does this) so people can see when 
someone makes an update that others disagree about. Or alternatively, 
encourage people to discuss before replacing things on the best 
practices list.

If it works we can consider how it could be integrated into plone.org 
docs as of course the current docs index (and new layout) doesn't solve 
the "best practices" problem.

BTW, I've now made it so anyone can edit without having to be a member. 
We'll see how that works to start with.

> 
> 
> On Thu, May 29, 2008 at 12:56 AM, Jon Stahl <jon at onenw.org> wrote:
>> Ah, thanks for the update, JoAnna -- I suppose this seems then like a more
>> short-term pursuable task that perhaps jumps starts that longer term goal.
>>
>> :jon
>>
>> JoAnna Springsteen wrote:
>>> fyi, re: trails
>>> http://dev.plone.org/plone/ticket/7836
>>> We are no longer pursuing that idea. No buy in at this point in time.
>>> We can readdress after some other higher priority doc team tasks are
>>> in place.
>>>
>>> re: cheat sheet.
>>> Cool! Absolutely *love* the idea of best practices. I'm sure it will
>>> be controversial as well but I think it's a concept worth pursuing in
>>> all of our documentation.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Thu, May 29, 2008 at 12:37 AM, Jon Stahl <jon at onenw.org> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hi Dylan!
>>>>
>>>> I think this is a great start, and a very useful effort.  It resonates
>>>> strongly with the documentation team's idea of "trails" that lead you to
>>>> the key resources for each major topic.
>>>>
>>>> :jon
>>>>
>>>> Dylan Jay wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Hi Guys
>>>>>
>>>>> Following on from the "Where does it hurt?" discussion. I've come up
>>>>> with an idea that I think could help reduce the learning curve but I
>>>>> need your help.
>>>>>
>>>>> I've created a Plone Developers Cheatsheet.
>>>>> http://www.openplans.org/projects/plonecheatsheet
>>>>>
>>>>> The idea is a complete list of what you need to learn reduced down to
>>>>> just best practice, not the extraneous stuff.
>>>>>
>>>>> It's an open project and I like you all to be the first members and help
>>>>> get it to a suitably complete state that we can link it from plone.org
>>>>> documentation. It's very empty right now. Please be the first add and
>>>>> edit.
>>>>>
>>>>> It's my hope that it becomes useful enough to each of us for keeping
>>>>> tabs on what what is best practice and whats the current best tutorial
>>>>> for something. At the same time remains simple enough to help guide a
>>>>> newbie developer into plone.
>>>>>
>>>>> I fully expect that some decisions on what is best practice will be
>>>>> controversial. Hopefully this is a good place to record the results of
>>>>> those debates and perhaps the associated mailing list is good place to
>>>>> have those debates. or on here.
>>>>>
>>>>> Also you can be brutally honest and tell me if you think this won't work
>>>>> and why.
>>>>>
>>>>> Dylan.
>>>>>
>>>>> Martin Aspeli wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> Hi guys,
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Following a long discussion with Dylan Jay (buried in another thread on
>>>>>> Devilstick terminology), I thought I'd conduct an informal poll.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> ==> As a customiser of Plone, or as someone wanting to build bespoke
>>>>>> components that extend Plone, what do you find most confusing?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I think this could fall into a few categories:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> - Areas where there's insufficient/poor documentation, but once you
>>>>>> learn how to do something, it's clear how to proceed.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> - Areas where there appears to be more than one approach, and it's not
>>>>>> clear which one to choose
>>>>>>
>>>>>> - Areas where Plone doesn't appear to have a good way to do something
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Please keep replies as succinct and factual as possible. I'm really not
>>>>>> interested in a winge fest by people who've been frustrated in the
>>>>>> past.
>>>>>> I'd much rather have constructive feedback on where the pain is and, if
>>>>>> possible, suggestions for how to improve things.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Cheers,
>>>>>> Martin
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>
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>>
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