Planned archgenxml improvements¶

I've just cut a 1.6 branch of archgenxml, which will be the next version of archgenxml - 1.5.0 has been released last saturday. Time for some cleanup and modernisation!

• Use distutils and easy_install: python setup.py install and easy_install archgenxml. Done :-) Warning: that easy_install one is the version I'm hacking and slashing on now.

• Putting zope3 view classes or adapters in front of every code-generating dtml template. I'm expecting a lot from this relatively simple measure.

  The reason? It will allow us to extract some functionality out of the dtml templates. That in itself is not such a big deal. The big deal is that we can remove code from the XMIparser and the big ArchetypeGenerator.py file that is there just for presentation. There are a lot of special cases and if..else statements scattered all over the place.

  Slowly extracting all the non-core stuff into the view classes and adapters will make the XMI parser and the main generator way more accessible, moldable and improvable.

• Deprecating tagged values, stereotypes and commandline options. There are quite a lot of double items, almost unused options and deprecated stereotypes. This time we'll clear them out. This will mean some breakage here and there, but in a limited way that is perfectly acceptable.

  Example: cmfmember isn't there anymore in plone 2.5, so we can zap two stereotypes and five tagged values.

  Many generation options could be set on the command line, in a config file and in tagged values. We'll restrict many of them to just tagged values, which is logical as they can change throughout the model (like "author"). Work has begun, I've zapped 30% of the tagged values.

Apart from cleanup, some plone2.5 goodies will see the light. View class generation, that sort of thing.

Request for help. Apart from help getting 1.6 off the ground, 1.5.1 will be a bugfix release for 1.5.0. There's a good number of bugs in the issue tracker, I'm slowly working my way through them. Rejecting some, fixing some instantly, slotting some for 1.5.1, some for 1.6. I can't do all that work on my own, neither can Jens or Phil or Godefroid. So: we need more developers and more helpers with the issue tracker.

Fixing bugs is a great way to start contributing! It would help me a lot to have fewer 1.5 bugs to worry about. People are bugged by it. So they should be eradicated, mashed, and exterminated like the misbegotten horse droppings they are!