[pmwiki-users] ZAP syntax ideas...

[The Editor]

On 4/25/07, Jiri Hladůvka / OBUTEX <admin at obutex.com> wrote:
> Sorry Dan, I am totally lost now - perhaps I missed some important post.
>
> Would you explain the differences between:
> - ZAP
> - ACME
> - ZAPwiki

ZAP is the name of the script, code, engine, forms processor,
whatever.  I've been referring it to as ZAP and will continue to do
so.

Acme is the name of the recipe page.  There's a story behind it, you
can see a hint of it at
http://www.fast.st/zapbeta/index.php?n=Main/Coyote. Also some info at
the bottom of the recipe page.  It was a bit of fun.

ZAPwiki is an experimental project I'm working on that may one day be
able to run ZAP independently. It should have no effect on ZAP other
than absorbing my attention and distracting me from constantly
tweaking ZAP. Which is be a good thing. For more information see
http://www.fast.st/zapbeta/index.php?n=Support-Engine/HomePage. Note
the disclaimers there and please send comments about this project to
me offlist.

> Should I switch to something different then
> zap.php and zaptoolbox.php recipes which I downloaded as 19 Apr 2007
> version ?
> What is the future of these recipes?
> Shouldn't  I  stop devoloping pages based on zap.php and zaptoolbox.php
> recipes for now?

There should be no major changes to ZAP or ZAPtoolbox for the future.
I am making a change to the edit command, (splitting it into edit and
insert) but all other commands will continue to work as at present as
far as I know.  I am also introducing a couple syntax changes, but
they will not be required until ZAP comes out of beta.

When ZAP does come out of beta (around the time PmWiki does), a
permanent version will be available. After that point, changes (though
I'm not planning for any) will be made to a separate beta release. ZAP
is thus very, very close to done.

> I have not a lot of zapform pages yet as I use the forms as
> shared/included pages
> but with my poor English I can hardly follow all the discussed changes
> and to have a conception of the expected impacts :-(
>
> Would you recomend me to stay on version 19 Apr 2007 of zap.php and
> zaptoolbox.php
> for a longer period - let's say for 1 year ?

I think any upgrades between now and the permanent release will be
very minor, and should not break any forms (with one exception
involving the edit command). New releases do sometimes contain bug
fixes, so keeping current is a plus.

When the permament release becomes available, there may be a couple
required updates to forms, that involve changing a command name or
two. But it will be fully documented and easy to do.

> Will they work as expected
> regardless on PmWiki
> core developement? (the parts concerning forms and PTV - no email, no
> membership, no shopping cart ...)

I can't promise anything regarding PmWiki development, but Pm is very
good but about working with recipe writers to avoid wrecking their
projects. When Pm's insert command comes out, it MAY affect how ZAP
does page insertions, (again the edit/insert question), but I have no
way to know if it will be significant or not.  As far as PTV's (and
everything else in ZAP) I foresee it having no effect.

> Please advise,

Hope this helps. ZAP really is close to a final release.  I'm mostly
waiting on Pm to finish PmWiki 2.2. The last discussion post on
possible changes may have sounded like a lot but it resulted in very
little actual change. Mostly just thinking out loud about how to
"polish" ZAP off.  I very much appreciate the input from all.

Cheers,
Dan