Zope in the Python 3 wonderland

A little tale

Once upon the time there was the big mighty Zope II. It was one of the leaders in the Python land. It had mighty features like TTW (trough the web) development and its own object oriented database. Many people liked Zope II and trusted it to be the basis for their personal work and the work of their companies.

After some years Zope II got a son named Zope III. It could have been even mightier and more trustworthy than Zope II. But some people argued that Zope III is too complex and too hard to understand and way too different from Zope II which they knew very well.

New, faster and easier to understand frameworks arose beside Zope II and Zope III and the people began to like the new ones more. After many years of power, Zope became weak. Its name got hated by many people in its country. It even got nearly forgotten.

But there are still the people out in the far away kingdoms who built a complete ecosystem on the shoulders of Zope. They cannot completely change the basis of their work within months or even years. They deserve a perspective even for the Python 3 wonderland which is no longer a vague dream but already a future with wide open doors.

Back in reality

We are here to help Zope to find a new home in the Python 3 land and live there happily a great many years. Therefore we scheduled a Sprint named Zope Resurrection Sprint where we will discuss and code on Zope to get it more Python 3 ready.

The big blocker is currently RestrictedPython which relies on modules which are no longer in the Python 3 standard library. But RestrictedPython is an important part of the TTW security concept, so it has to be rewritten from scratch. Folks who think they do not need TTW in their projects can work on a Zope where RestrictedPython is optional.

Besides the Python 3 migration of the code the contents of the application databases using Zope need a conversion, too. On a previous sprint in Berlin, we wrote a possible solution: zodb.py3migrate which needs some more tests with real databases.

Furthermore, there is Zope IV, the successor of Zope II which needs some love to become strong and ready for its adventurous journey as the basis of Plone VI and others.

It is still possible to join the sprint either in Halle (Saale), Germany or remote. We are looking forward to a good time to put up the banner of Zope in the Python land again.

Author: Michael Howitz

I am a software developer at gocept in Halle (Saale). To develop software, I mainly use Python, Zope, ZTK and Django. View all posts by Michael Howitz