[Subversion] / PEAK / README.txt  

Diff of /PEAK/README.txt

Parent Directory | Revision Log

version 275, Wed Feb 28 21:25:31 2001 UTC version 1061, Thu May 1 17:43:55 2003 UTC
Line 1 
Line 1 
 TransWarp Preview Release 0.1  PEAK Release 0.5 alpha 1
 Copyright (C) 2001 Phillip J. Eby, All rights reserved.  
 This software may be used under the same terms as Zope or Python.   Copyright (C) 1996-2003 by Phillip J. Eby and Tyler C. Sarna.
    All rights reserved.  This software may be used under the same terms
 Please see http://www.zope.org/Members/pje/Wikis/TransWarp for tutorials,   as Zope or Python.  THERE ARE ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND.
 FAQs, package layout, etc.  Selected pages from the Wiki are included   Code quality varies between modules, from "beta" to "experimental
 in the docs/ directory for your convenience.   pre-alpha".  :)
   
 At this time, the 'Features', 'Aspects', 'SOX', and 'tests' modules   Package Description
 and packages are usable, if not necessarily full-featured.  All other  
 modules/packages (except as imported by the above) are under heavy      PEAK is the "Python Enterprise Application Kit". If you develop
 construction - don't enter without a hard hat!  (That is,      "enterprise" applications with Python, or indeed almost any sort of
 use them at your own risk.  Although, there's no warranty that any of      application with Python, PEAK may help you do it faster, easier, on a
 the other stuff works, beyond the fact that the tests run on my      larger scale, and with fewer defects than ever before. The key is
 home computer.)      component-based development, on a reliable infrastructure.
   
       PEAK is an application kit, and applications are made from components.
       PEAK provides you with a component architecture, component infrastructure,
       and various general-purpose components and component frameworks for
       building applications.  As with J2EE, the idea is to let you stop
       reinventing architectural and infrastructure wheels, so you can put more
       time into your actual application.
   
       But PEAK is different from J2EE: it's a single, free implementation of
       simpler API's based on an easier-to-use language that can nonetheless
       scale with better performance than J2EE.
   
       PEAK is the successor to TransWarp, an experimental toolkit for software
       automation in Python.  PEAK takes the best of the techniques and ideas
       from TransWarp, and repackages them as an enterprise software toolkit.
       Where TransWarp emphasized techniques like generative programming and
       aspect-oriented programming, PEAK emphasizes enterprise applications,
       and hides the computer science stuff "under the hood", so you can focus
       on building your application.
   
       PEAK tools can be used with other "Python Enterprise" frameworks such as
       Zope, Twisted, and the Python DBAPI to construct web-based, GUI, or
       command-line applications, interacting with any kind of storage, or with
       no storage at all.  Whatever the application type, PEAK can help you put
       it together.
   
    Package Features
   
       As of version 0.5a1, PEAK features include:
   
       * A component binding framework that makes it easy to parameterize
         components and thus more easily combine and "wire" them together.
   
       * A comprehensive configuration framework that allows accessing
         "utilities" and "configuration properties" in context.  Properties
         and utilities can be loaded or computed on demand, supplied by rules,
         defined in configuration files or code, in a supplied or custom
         format.  Properties and utilities are contextual and can be safely
         acquired from parent/context components automatically.
   
       * Naming system/framework that's midway between J2EE's JNDI and CORBA's
         cosNaming in features, but much easier to use and extend than either
         of those systems.
   
       * A storage management and persistence system, including:
   
           - Atomic, multi-database transactions with two-phase commit.
   
           - "Data Manager" class framework for persistence management, that
             allows you to separate business logic from storage implementation.
             If you can write a few simple methods like "load" and "save" for
             a given object type and storage approach, you can create your own
             "DM" components.  You can think of a DM as an advanced form of
             Python "shelve", that supports references to other objects,
             transactions, arbitrary back-end storages, and caching.
   
           - "Stackable" data managers: one DM might serialize a set of objects
             to XML, which could then be stored in a database record by another
             DM, and then the database record might be implemented via a DM
             that writes to disk files!  Each DM only needs to know how to
             manipulate objects offered by the next-level DM, not the details
             of the next DM's implementation, so all the DM's are potentially
             replaceable with alternate storage mechanisms.
   
           - RDBMS and LDAP connection framework based on the Python DBAPI,
             that handles data type conversions (via the configuration
             framework) and seamlessly integrates with the transaction system
             and naming services framework.  DB Connections can be accessed
             by name or URL, and bound as default collaborators or utilities
             for access by other application components.
   
       * CASE/modelling tools: PEAK includes APIs to read object
         models created in the XML-based XMI format.  Many open-source and
         commercial modelling tools support XMI, inlcuding Argo/Poseidon and
         MagicDraw UML.  PEAK includes pre-built support for UML version 1.3
         and MOF 1.3.1, using XMI versions 1.0 and 1.1. (UML 1.4, UML 1.5,
         CWM 1.0, CWM 1.1, and XMI 1.2 are anticipated for 0.5a2, and possibly
         XMI 2.0 by 0.5 final.)  Also included is a MOF->Python code generator,
         which was used to generate the UML and CWM support, and which you can
         use to generate support for other modelling languages based on the MOF.
   
         For the specifications of XMI, MOF, CWM, and UML, visit:
         http://www.omg.org/technology/documents/modeling_spec_catalog.htm
   
       * A domain modelling framework for creating "business object models"
         with unidirectional and bidirectional associations, generated
         getters/setters and validators for fields, etc., and all necessary
         persistence support for use with the PEAK storage framework.
   
         The business object framework supplies structural metadata about
         classes built with it, so you can query a class for its fields and
         links, and their names, types, etc.  This can be useful for
         implementing model-driven storage or user interfaces.  And the
         metadata is aligned with the MOF, so generating MOF, UML, or CWM
         from PEAK models (and vice versa) is possible (although
         not yet implemented for anything but MOF->PEAK).
   
       * Application Runtime tools, including:
   
         - a "command objects" framework for creating command-line applications
   
         - a "periodic tasks" framework for executing tasks that perform "as
           needed", scheduling themselves in response to their available workloads
   
         - a CGI/FastCGI publishing framework that uses 'zope.publisher' to
           publish a PEAK component tree and its associated transaction service
   
         - an event-driven "reactor" framework that seamlessly integrates with
           Twisted, but can also be used without Twisted for applications that are
           mostly scheduling-oriented, or which use only third-party protocol
           implementations such as FAM, FastCGI, ReadyExec, etc.
   
       * AOP and SOP: PEAK allows you to separate concerns as modules, then
         combine the modules via a "module inheritance" technique.  This
         lets you define a generated business object model as a
         "structural" concern, and then combine it with a "behavioral"
         concern.  This is as simple as writing classes that contain only
         what you want to add, and then telling PEAK that your new module
         "inherits" from the generated module.  This is similar to (but
         designed independently from) the "MixJuice" tool for AOP in Java.
   
   
    Known Issues and Risks of this Version
   
      This is ALPHA software.  Although much of the system is extensively
      tested by a battery of automated tests, it may contain bugs, especially
      in areas not covered by the test suites.  Also, many system interfaces
      are still subject to change.
   
      PEAK includes early copies of Zope X3's 'zope.interface' and 'persistence'
      packages, which have had - and will continue to have - significant
      implementation changes.  We will be tracking Zope X3 periodically, but
      can't guarantee compatibility with arbitrary (e.g. CVS) versions of
      Zope X3.
   
      Documentation at present is limited, and scattered.  The principal
      documentation is an API reference generated from the code's lengthy
      docstrings (which usually contain motivating examples for using that
      class, method, or function).  The mailing list and its archives
      provide a wealth of information on actual usage scenarios,
      recommended approaches, etc.  There is also the beginnings of a
      tutorial on using the component binding package.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
    Third-Party Software Included with PEAK
   
        All third-party software included with PEAK are understood by PEAK's
        authors to be distributable under terms comparable to those PEAK is
        offered under.  However, it is up to you to understand any obligations
        those licenses may impose upon you.  For your reference, here are the
        third-party packages and where to find their license terms:
   
        The 'kjbuckets' module is Copyright Aaron Watters and contributors;
        please see the 'src/kjbuckets/COPYRIGHT.txt' file for details of its
        license.
   
        The 'zope.interface', 'persistence', and 'ZConfig' packages are
        Copyright Zope Corporation and contributors; please see the 'LICENSE.txt'
        files in their directories for details of their licenses.
   
        The 'fcgiapp' module is Copyright Digital Creations, LC (now Zope Corp.);
        see the 'fcgiappmodule.c' for details of its license.  In the same
        directory are distributed portions of the FastCGI Development Kit, which
        is Copyright Open Market, Inc.  See the 'LICENSE.TERMS' file in that
        directory for details of its license.
   
    Installation Instructions
   
       Please see the INSTALL.txt file.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   


Generate output suitable for use with a patch program
Legend:
Removed from v.275  
changed lines
  Added in v.1061

cvs-admin@eby-sarna.com

Powered by ViewCVS 1.0-dev

ViewCVS and CVS Help