You've heard it through the grapevine

I'm finally putting an end to all the rumors, questions, beggings, threats... Yes, I'm working on a second edition of Web Component Development with Zope 3.

From the beginning I had said that I would not let my efforts in documenting Zope 3 rest with a first edition of the book. Back then the reason for this was that I already knew that Zope 3 was going to change tremendously in the versions after Zope X3 3.0 (which is what the first edition covers), mostly because I was actively taking part in those changes.

I actually expected that the rapid evolution of Zope 3 would mandate updated documentation much sooner. Given how much Zope 3 changed and how "old" the first edition is by now (published in March 2005), it's positively surprising to see how much value the first edition still holds. It's still the best way to learn Zope 3 and I would not hesitate any second to recommend it to someone who wants to seriously get into Zope 3 development now. Not because I want to sell yet another copy of the book (they're almost sold out anyways), but because it answers the questions people have. From my experience, 75% of the questions Zope 3 newbies have on IRC can be answered by pointing them to a page in the book.

Why the second edition then? First of all, just the magnitude of changes in Zope 3 frameworks and the new ways we approach the Component Architecture nowadays justifies a lot of the work. Secondly, Zope 3 also has lots of new features that really want to be documented. Thirdly and most importantly, I think the first edition really needs a do-over. There are tons of things about the first edition that I'm not satisfied with. Just look at the errata list. It's long. And let's not forget about the typos. How could I think that I would survive without a spellchecker? I have no idea, but at least I learned from that mistake.

To conclude, I can reassure you that there'll be a second edition. And it will be much better than the first edition. When and for how much it will be available I can't say for sure. I also rather not make any promises I can't keep in the end. But hey, I accept bets whether or not it'll be released before or after Zope 3.3 final ;).