[Zope] Why so many problems with database adapters?

[Brian Lloyd]

> [Hung Jung Lu, on Thu, 06 Apr 2000]
> :: Is there another way of loosening the tight control of release
> :: of products? If Digicool does not have the man-power for taking
> :: care of release of some component, why not figure out a way
> :: for others to jump in and do the fixes? Why repeat the mistakes
> :: and shortcomings of the Java Bug Parade system? Is there a way
> :: somehow of linking in the product pages to some sort of user
> :: feedback?
> 
> It would probably be somewhat helpful to DC if there was some way for
> the user community to participate in prioritizing bugs; or at 
> least some
> way not to decouple the issue and the followups.

Even better is for the user community to be able to participate
in *fixing* problems (and "scratch their own itches" generally). 

We are very aware of the problem - resource availability at DC 
is currently the biggest bottleneck in getting problems resolved, 
getting features added, etc. And that's just with Zope itself - 
when you think about the multitude of various database adapters
and other components out there, it's obvious that the more popular
Zope becomes, the less likely it is that we could possibly keep up 
with it all, even throwing all of our ever-growing resources at it.

The Answer of course is the decision that we have taken - that Zope 
needs to truly be developed "in the fishbowl", that we need to 
open the development process and provide the infrastructure required
to allow community members to champion their own issues and remove 
DC as the bottleneck. People with vested interest in a component such
as a particular DA should be able to take the lead on that component,
have real ownership and control their own destinies.

"Ok - that sounds great, but WHEN?" you may be reasonably saying to 
yourself. We made the decision some time ago that this is the way 
that we need to go, but the resources to make it happen are just
now becoming available. We are even now working on figuring out the
best way to "get there from here". The devil is, as always, in the 
details, and I expect to start soliciting opinions from the Zope 
community soon to resolve some of those devilish details and get 
to work on implementing the open development process.


Brian Lloyd        brian@digicool.com
Software Engineer  540.371.6909              
Digital Creations  http://www.digicool.com