Ready, set, sprint: Earl Zope invites again

Sprint with Earl Zope at September, 21st and 22nd of 2023.

Earl Zope is already a long time inhabitant of the Python 3 wonderland. Living here for some years with the help of his friends, he sometimes looks back to the “good old times” but mostly enjoys his current live with all its surprises and unexpected turns.

Gocept invites you to sprint for Earl Zope’s future well-being: 21st till 22nd of September 2023 in the SaltLabs of Halle, Germany. Participants of the sprint are also invited to join the gocept-23 party at 23rd of September 2023.

This sprint will the last one hosted by gocept as the company will go new ways by the end of the year. To join please register via meetup.com. (After registering for the sprint, you’ll get the party invitation.)

Sprint with Earl Zope in April of 2022

Sprint with Earl Zope at April, 13th 2022 towards Python 3.11 compatibility.

Earl Zope – once in a while – needs some help to feel well again in the ever changing Python 3 wonderland.

Please join a one-day-sprint at April, 13th 2022 organized by gocept to make Earl Zope more comfortable with the current Python 3.10 and the upcoming Python 3.11.

Especially the new upcoming version has some bitter surprises for Earl Zope: The C-code of some of his dependencies will no longer compile without modifications. An example dependency is already ported, so it should be possible to port other ones by the monkey-see-monkey-do principle.

The sprint will be a pure online-sprint. If you want to join please register via meetup.com.

Zope April Sprint 2021 report

Earl Zope invited to a sprint and nearly 10 people were joining to work on several aspects in Earl Zope’s ecosystem:

  • fix the ZEO tests on Python 3.8+
  • add a “delete all” button for Products.BTreeFolder2
  • fix DeprecationWarnings in Products.CMFCore and zope.sqlalchemy
  • migrate CI system of some packages from TravisCI to GitHub Actions
  • document the GitHub teams of the zopefoundation organization

By the end of the day the sprinters were joined by Paul Everitt and Jim Fulton to hear some stories of the former glory of Earl Zope and to discuss the current status and possibilities.

Earl Zope thanks all the people who joined the sprint and made it possible that he can feel a bit more comfortable in the Python 3 wonderland.

There is another one-day-sprint upcoming at Friday, 2nd of July 2021. Feel free to join via meetup.com. Earl Zope is looking forward to meet you.

Earl Zope invites to sprint

Two Zope sprints at 23rd of April and
2nd of July 2021.

Already nearly two years went by after Earl Zope got his permanent permit to live in the Python 3 wonderland. He enjoys his new life, the many new friends he made and the old ones who also moved to the Python 3 wonderland. Life could be so happy and so easy but there are always some disruptions appearing and shadows of the past showing up:

  • the automatic verification for Earl Zope and all of his staff broke – aka the continuous integration system for Zope and its dependencies has to be changed from TravisCI to GitHub Actions
  • the laws, regulations and instructions have to be adapted to the Python 3 wonderland standards – aka still large parts of the documentation are outdated: they are describing Zope 2, and should get an update to match Zope 5
  • Python 3 wonderland rapidly changes and develops: each year there will be changes Earl Zope has to handle – aka Python 3.10 is in its late alpha versions now and it is already known that there are changes in Zope’s dependencies necessary to support that new version

So Earl Zope kindly asks for help with this troubles.– Or should he call them challenges? He invites to a two short sprints:

Both sprints will be remote-only due to the unclear pandemic situation. On the other hand it allows participants to save time and money otherwise needed for travel.

To participate, please sign up using Meetup: The dates above are links to the Meetup events.

Earl Zope looks forward to these days and thanks in advance everyone who will be contributing to the success.

Zope May sprint goes remote

Earl Zope was inviting to the Zope May sprint, from 13th till 15th of May, 2020. He was hoping for many volunteers to come. Due to restrictions to prevent spreading of COVID-19 (Corona) this sprint is going to be remote-only. – By now all of the organizers and their families are fine, so you do not have to worry about us.

This remote-only sprint will be an experiment. We already gathered some experience with remote work, communication and planning. But we neither participated at nor organized a remote-only sprint.

We will prepare channels for communication and collaboration for this sprint. Stay tuned for details. Earl Zope will appreciate your help.

As even a remote-only sprint needs preparation, please join via Meetup, so we are able to see, who we can count on to help Earl Zope in Python wonderland.

Zope May Sprint

Earl Zope has settled down for a good while in Python 3 wonderland. He made friends with the inhabitants and other immigrants. He enjoys his new live.

The sunset of his original homelands took place as predicted by the beginning of January 2020. As Earl Zope was well prepared this was no longer a frightening date for him.

But even living in Python 3 wonderland is not only joy and relaxing. The Python 3 wonderland changes in a more rapid speed than the Python 2 land ever had before: Each year a new policy has to be fulfilled (aka new Python version release). Additionally it is time to drop the last connections to the old Python 2 land to ease the transformation in Python 3 wonderland to make developers and consumers happy.

Earl Zope is grateful for all the help he already gained: There where several Zope 4 releases and a first Zope 5 alpha version was just released. Even though Earl Zope still needs your help to:

  • prepare dependencies to ease transition to new Python versions (aka make repositories more uniform to ease updating to new Python versions.)
  • drop Python 2 support in repositories of dependencies
  • support and test with newer Python 3 versions (aka current 3.9 alpha)
  • improve and update the documentation

You are invited to the “Zope May sprint” located in Halle/Saale, 🇩🇪 from 13th till 15th of May 2020 hosted by gocept. In order to coordinate the participation for this sprint, we ask you to join us on Meetup. We can then coordinate the catering and requirements for space.

Update: This sprint will be held als a remote-only sprint. Details see Zope May sprint goes remote.

Zope Spring Cleaning: Last minute information

As the beta permission of Earl Zope in Python 3 wonderland was extended in October 2018, gocept invites Zope developers to the upcoming sprint from 08.05. till 10.05.2019 in Halle (Saale), Germany, to continue together on the work, which is still left.

We aim to polish the last dusty spots on Earl Zope for the final permission to Python 3 wonderland aka the final 4.0 release. As Plone and other applications based on Zope have finally found a way to migrate a ZODB Data.fs created with Python 2 to Python 3, the obstacles for this final permit are almost gone.

So if you have questions concerning migrating databases, it is a good time to join or open an issue on GitHub. As many people are working on Zope during these days, the probability of a quick answer is high.

As organizational tool to coordinate the work, we use GitHub projects again, as it allows cross-repository tracking of issues.

Our current schedule:

  • Wednesday
    • 8:15 Breakfast at gocept kitchen
    • 9:00 Welcome at gocept office and start sprinting afterwards
    • 12:30 Lunch
    • 13:30 Happy sprinting
    • between 15:00 and 16:00 coffee break
    • 18:00 Lights out
    • Going to a local pub
  • Thursday:
    • 8:15 Breakfast
    • 9:00 Standup
    • 12:30 Lunch
    • 13:30 Happy sprinting
    • between 15:00 and 16:00 coffee break
    • 17:00 A game of boules if the weather permits it
    • Going to a local pub
  • Friday:
    • 8:15 Breakfast
    • 9:00 Standup
    • 12:30 Lunch
    • 13:30 Happy sprinting
    • 15:00 Closing meeting
    • 16:00 Lights out

Parking: As Saltlabs in located in a pedestrian zone, the availability of parking spots is rather low. Please use one of the parking decks nearby.

One last hint: The location of the sprint is Leipziger Str. 70, Halle (Saale), Germany.

Zope spring cleaning sprint

The last year before the sunset of the Python 2 land has begun. Earl Zope feels relatively well prepared to live in the Python 3 wonderland.

Some issue are still open which are required for the final permission to stay in Python 3 wonderland:

  • test and improve ZODB migration
  • update the documentation
  • fix some glitches in the visual appearance of Earl Zope
  • fix some issues occurring while working together with other residents of the Python 3 wonderland

We invite you, to join forces for three days in May at Saltlabs in Halle and keep on developing good (database) migration stories for various Zope projects, you might have. So bring your Data.fs and let’s port it to Python.

Sprint information

  • Date: Wednesday, 8th until Friday, 10th of May 2019
  • Location: Leipziger Str. 70, Halle (Saale), Germany

Registration

Please join us via Meetup.

Beta permission for Earl Zope extended

Earl Zope was hoping to get the final permission for the Python 3 wonderland on the Saltlabs Sprint in Halle last week. He has made good progress in settling down:

  • Zope claims compatibility with the newest Python standards (Python 3.7).
  • Earl Zope now has new cloths for his administrative interface (called ZMI) as shown on the image above.
  • Zope is playing nicer together with Prince Plone who is also migrating to the Python 3 wonderland
  • Documentation got improved and at least partly updated to Zope 4.
  • Zope got some other bug fixes.

But this was not enough for the immigration authorities to give Earl Zope the final permission. The following was missing:

  • a working and proven story how to migrate Earl Zope’s treasures stored the Data.fs

There was good progress towards this goal but it could not be fully reached. So gocept will have the honour to host another sprint maybe in May next year.

The new beta licence has the id 4.0b6 and can be achieved and used as described in the Zope documentation.

Saltlabs Sprint: last minute information

Earl Zope is now nearly settled down in Python 3 wonderland. On the Zope and Plone sprint from Monday, 1st until Friday, 5th of October 2018 in Halle (Saale), Germany we will work towards the final Zope 4 release aka the final permission for the Python 3 wonderland.

We are currently 33 participants for the sprint. So be prepared for a huge sprint with many interesting people. The Saltlabs have a café (called KOFFIJ) we can use, a big meeting room with big display (aka the Thronsaal) and many smaller rooms including the offices of gocept. So there will be enough room to work in bigger and smaller groups.

To keep the organisational overhead low with this amount of participants, we plan to separate in two teams: Zope and Plone. Those teams will organise themselves individually and we will have a short daily meeting after lunch to share the status in a condensed manner with the other team. Direct communication in case of a difficult problem is, of course, always possible.

We reserved up to one hour after the daily meeting for talks and presentations by you about interesting topics around Zope and Plone, successful migration stories, or something else you want to share with the community. So if you have some interesting slides, please bring them with you and register during the week for a slot.

Our current schedule:

  • Sunday
    • 19:00, there is a table reserved at Grober Gottlieb, so if you’ve already arrived and want some company, you are invited to join.
  • Monday
    • 9:00 Breakfast at KOFFIJ (This is the café in the ground floor of Saltlabs aka the window to the left on the picture above.)
    • 10:00 Welcome at KOFFIJ and start sprinting afterwards
    • 12:30 Lunch
    • 13:30 Sprint planning and introduction for all sprinters at Thronsaal
    • between 15:00 and 17:00 coffee break at KOFFIJ
    • 18:00 Lights out
  • All other days:
    • 8:30 Breakfast
    • 9:00 Standup in the team (Zope, Plone)
    • 12:30 Lunch
    • 13:30 Daily meeting at Thronsaal
    • 14:00 (Lightning) Talks at Thronsaal
    • between 15:00 and 17:00 coffee break at KOFFIJ
    • 18:00 Lights out
  • Tuesday:
    • 11:00 till 17:00 Massages, there will be a list to register on Monday
    • 19:00 social evening at Eigenbaukombinat (local hacker space) with pizza, beer and mate
  • Friday:
    • 13:30 Closing meeting with presentations at Thronsaal
    • 17:00 Lights out

If you cannot make it to the Welcome meeting, ask at KOFFIJ for one of the gocept staff to get a personal introduction.

Parking: As Saltlabs in located in a pedestrian zone, the availability of parking spots is rather low. Please use one of the parking decks nearby.

As organizational tool to coordinate the work, we try to use Github projects this time, as it allows cross-repository tracking of issues.

One last hint: The location of the sprint is Leipziger Str. 70, Halle (Saale), Germany.