[pmwiki-users] New Acme recipe...

[Ben Stallings]

I feel the need to speak up on a couple issues brought up by this thread:

1) I have found ZAP to be a very useful recipe, though its documentation 
still needs work.  I am using it on three of my production sites and it 
works flawlessly.  Because all three sites are password-protected, I 
can't demonstrate them to the list, but if individuals would like to try 
them out, contact me and I'll send you a password.  The DataPlates demo 
site at http://workscited.net/dataplates is still using last week's 
version of ZAP, but I plan to upgrade it later today and will post a 
follow-up so that you can see that it does, in fact, work as advertised.

2) I have found Dan to be a pleasure to work with, always responsive to 
questions and suggestions and always positive and constructive in his 
tone.  I admit I was initially reluctant to work with him because he is 
ambitious and has a rhetorical flair, but I can't argue with his 
results: he programs rings around me, and he seems to test his code more 
thoroughly than I do before releasing it.  When I browse through the 
pmwiki-users digests, there are only two people whose posts I always 
read: Pm's and Dan's.

3) I have achieved far more in the past months by working with Dan and 
ZAP than I could have by creating my own recipe.  I can only imagine how 
great ZAP and Fox would be today if Hans could have stood to cooperate 
with Dan and produce one recipe instead of two.  Forced to choose 
between the two, I have had to ignore Fox, because ZAP does just what I 
need.

3) I agree with Dan that speculations about the perceived instability of 
ZAP need to be backed up by evidence; otherwise they are libel -- my 
word, not Dan's.  Clearly, the development cycle has been very fast and 
a lot of the syntax has changed, causing some ZAP forms to break.  But a 
broken ZAP form is not nearly as dangerous as you might think; mostly it 
just doesn't do anything.

4) I applaud the recent name change to Acme.  I think it's a much better 
name than ZAP (or Fox, for that matter).  Personally I would love to see 
the ZAP name phased out as the FASTdata name was, but I realize that 
would create a lot of work for all of us.

5) Although I was as dismayed and confused as anyone by the sudden name 
change and by Dan's references to writing his own wiki engine, I find 
Hans's allegations about Dan's motives totally inappropriate and 
uncalled for.  It's one thing to ask someone publicly about their 
motives, it's another to publicly accuse someone of having different 
motives from what they have said.  If I were Dan I would be furious at 
Hans right now, and I am very impressed that he has maintained an upbeat 
(if occasionally sarcastic) sense of humor.

So, my two cents: knock if off, Hans.  If you really can't work with 
Dan, by all means make Fox better.  But there's no need to libel either 
him or his work.  His "record" -- both good and bad -- stands for itself 
without your contributions.  --Ben