On Fri, 2 Mar 2001 08:59, zooko@zooko.com wrote:
Hi Zopesters!
It is now about 3 hours later and I have not yet found any "example code" or instructions that shows how to set up a basic web site or how to write Python code that gets executed, CGI-style, in response to an HTTP transaction. I browsed zope.org, the ZDP, and a site called
Why on earth would you want to do CGI when you have Zope? The whole point of Zope is to supercede CGI, I thought. Zope changes the paradigm from "run this script" to "invoke this method of this object".
"ZopeNewbies". I looked at the "QuickStart" that came with the zope server, but all I saw was how to edit web pages using DTML. I don't want to have anything to do with DTML (though we use it in my product, Mojo Nation[2], which BTW is probably the second-biggest open source Python app, after Zope), and I don't want to edit any static pages, so I stopped reading the "QuickStart".
Your mistake. DTML is the quickest way to get simple, dynamic pages happening. I know I had some functional stuff happening within 10 minutes, and I had no Python experience at all. Looking at what you said you had to do, and recallign the HowTos and Tips I have seen on the Zope.org site, I think you could have had something close to what you wanted within 1 or 2 hours, including learning curve.
So now I give up. I'm going to install apache (`apt-get install apache'), and use the Python bsddb module for a simple dict-like database.
Even though I wasted about half of my scheduled time on trying to set up a basic Zope server, I'll probably still have my prototype up and running 3 hours from now, when I have a meeting with my co-workers.
A couple of recommendations: 1) Be open to learn new things. It seems to me you have come at this problem with a bent to use old style solutions (like CGI) with new style tools. If you think about this for a couple of seconds, you will see this is just absurd. 2) Learn how to search. There are well over a hundred documents on Zope.org, conveniently catalogued and indexed, containing help and examples on doing all sorts of things! I know people from a Perl background wouldn't agree, but perhaps the guys at DC have made this info TOO easy to find?
Regards,
Zooko
[1] apt-get is the app that implements Debian's package management system.
Have a better one, Curtis Maloney