RFC: The Road(blocks) Ahead 
Squishdot 
Butch Landingin 
squishdot@yahoo.com 
1 
what-the-future-holds 
As more people use Squishdot, I hope to enhance it to become a more effective tool for 
 their news publishing and discussion needs. I have sketched out a tentative plan for the  
 changes we are planning. I welcome your comments and suggestions. 
%% 
As with all plans, it can change suddenly (<b>Update for ver 0.3.0:</b> it already did) and  
 without warning. I are presenting 
 this for review and comment, but don't hold me to it (<b>Update for ver 0.3.0:</b> I don't). 
<P> 
These are the planned releases of Squishdot: 
<UL> 
<LI> Version 0.1 - Initial release. <B>Update for ver. 0.3.0 :</B> Planned. Done. been there. done this.  
<LI> Version 0.3 - Currently this version. Focus on usability features - based on the responses  
 and suggestions I get, I hope to implement those features that make it more effective.  
 Among the things I'm working on are: 
<UL> 
<LI> A preview button/page -- so that you can preview and edit article/comment postings 
 prior to finally submission 
<LI> Converting the dept field into a more functional categorization (like subject topic) -- although 
 this is under debate (alternate solution: keep dept field as is and add a new field named section) 
<LI> Add a keywords field and index for additional categorization and searchability 
<LI> Ability to modify the main page display criteria by different date periods (e.g. daily view, weekly  
 view, monthly view, etc.) 
<LI> Add posting date to search criteria 
</UL> 
<B>Update for ver. 0.3.0 :</B> Only the preview button/page described above was implemented, and 
 instead an RSS/RDF page feature was added to allow content syndication. <i>This document is now obsolete 
 and will be replaced in the near future.</i> 
<P> 
On a minor note, we are also working on a fortune cookie Zope product (this will replace the static quote 
 at the bottom of the page) and we will also try to bundle in a working Poll Product example so that  
 you can run surveys as a Squishdot squishbox.<B>Update for ver. 0.3.0:</B> There are two fortune-cookie  
 products available for Zope which can be used to replace the static quotes found at the bottom of the page, 
 One is the <a href="http://www.zope.org/Members/michel/Products/Zippy">Zippy tag</a> implemented by Michel  
 Pelletier and the other is the <a href="http://www.zope.org/Members/lalo/Fortune">Fortune</a> product  
 by Lalo Martins. Check the <a href="http://www.zope.org">Zope</a> website for availability. Unfortunately, 
 no Poll products were listed for Zope2. 
<LI> Version 0.5 - first major architectural rewrite. We will start looking at performance issues in this 
 version. Also continue to implement and evaluate features for usability. This release will include those 
 features which we have put off in the 0.3 version which necessitate major changes in the  
 interface and/or implementation. 
<P> 
Among the ideas being floating around is the concept we call "article stalks" to which you can attach/detach  
 articles to -- something like a section page 
 of which the main page item list is (currently the only) one -- which have customizable color schemes,  
 images, etc. 
<P>  
Another major area of work planned for this release are user identification/customization features 
 so that you can customize what and how users see the articles and what they can do with them. 
<LI> Version 0.7 - continue evaluating/implementing features for usability. Our ideas here get fuzzier 
 and fuzzier the farther we are away from actual implementation 
<LI> Version 0.9 - last major architectural rewrite prior to releasing the 1.0 version. At this point 
 in time (if we ever get there), we hopefully would have had enough feedback to be able to include the major 
 features that are critical while taking those things out which just clutter up the interface. This will 
 also serve as the beta release and hopefully things (code, documentation, etc.)  will get cleaned up prior 
 to version 1.0 
<LI> Version 1.0 and Version 1.1 -- at this point, the development model will fork into a stable release series 
 (even-numbered minor release numbers) and experimental release series (odd-numbered minor release numbers). 
 Hopefully, there will no major interface changes  at this point (other than addition) so that sites using the  
 stable releases will be upwardly compatible with later releases. Major interface changes will spur  
 the increment of major release number but as to when that will happen we don't know. 
</UL> 
<P> 
Depending on how well (or how bad) users adopt Squishdot and contribute to improving it, as well as how busy  
 we are going to get (on the stuff that we get paid for) we estimate the time between release 0.1 and 1.0 to be  
 between 6 months to a year. But don't hold us to it. (<B>Update to version 0.3.0:</B> the jump from version  
 0.1.0 to 0.3.0 has already taken appx. 4 months, so this is really not likely to hold either) . 
<P> 
<B>Last minute addendum:</B> As we have begun hearing about Zope2 and ZClasses, we might incorporate this into 
 Squishdot to make it easier to customize. However, as we have been lagging a bit in learning about the new-fangled 
 features of Zope2, ZODB3, etc. so we have not determined at what version or time we can incorporate the  
 pixel-dust magic that will transform Squishdot into a subclassable ZClass, unless more knowledgeable Zope  
 masters deign to impart their deep wisdom to us lowly mortals. We've also seen the Catalog portal demo and  
 we are thinking a lot about how to integrate it with Squishdot (especially the personalization features). 
<P> 
<B>Update to version 0.3.0:</B> We've added the preview button and also an RSS/RDF page... -- these are the 
 two major new features in this feature release. I'm also working on a design document outlining 
 Squishdot's future direction. The next major release will probably include bigger architectural changes to 
 Squishdot (if all goes according to the general plan I've stated above) unless I get side-tracked by other 
 more interesting projects. 
<P> 
<I>--Butch Landingin &lt;squishdot@yahoo.com&gt; (Squishdot maintainer)</I> 
%% 
 
