Tom, I've cc'ed to the list as this may be useful to others...

We are at the start of making an intranet, which will contain a database of procedures (how to handle some examinations etc). We want to make it able that people can query this database and get the information they want on there web-browser.

ie a relatively standard web application

A day ago, we were confinced that PostgresSql with PHP3 (www.PHP3.org) would be the solution to this problem. This on a RedHat Linux 5.2 system with Apache as web-server. But now we've seen Zope. I'm wondering..., can Zope do the same things as PHP3? Or is this a complete different application? How stand Zope and PHP3 next to each other?

I've used PHP3 since it was PHP/FI and done lots of work in it. It's database integration is excellent and the ability to include PHP3 code into an HTML document and have it 'executed' is really neat (I think CGI's are ugly, whereas code in the delivered doc itself is elegant - my opinion, YMMV). I've run PHP on Solaris and Linux, and used a lot of the contributed code. Since I found out about Zope, I've desubscribed myself from the PHP lists and been focussing on Zope almost entirely. I posted a message a while ago 'Tough Questions about Zope' and got some excellent answers, for more details I'd check it out in the archives.

I believe PHP3 is a scripting language... I'm wondering : is Zope also only a scripting language? Or is it more? Is the scripting language (=Python?) more powerfull then Zope)

PHP3 is a scripting language, and is relatively easy to get started in. I may get a 16-ton weight dropped on me (in joke) but I think that if you're used to scripting languages already, you may get your application up and running faster in PHP3, as Zope scripting ('DTML') requires a bit of a mind-flip. However, once your application gets more complex, I think you'll find that Zope will start to pull ahead of PHP3 and eventually pull very far ahead. The list of things that Zope provides 'out-of-the-box', which are very difficult to do in PHP3 is pretty long; access permissions (at varying levels) at a per-directory and per-'object' level, editing of web pages online, *undo* - yes, undo!, and versions are the things that come to mind initially. There are many others. Obviously, there are some things in PHP3 that are a bit 'unusual' in Zope too (setting variables for instance! :) The scripting language of Zope is Python - I've bought several Python books (personal rec: Internet Programming in Python by Watters, van Rossum and Ahlstrom - top geezers in the Python world) and have found it to be quite a beautiful language. You can't install Python programs 'directly' into your DTML document, but 'External Methods' seem quite easy to write. Once you become familiar with 'Products' and what *they* can do, your jaw *will* drop.

Are there people, using PHP3 next to Zope?

This is a question I asked. The upshot is that it's pretty difficult to do in seemless way with current implementations of Apache (ie more or less impossible) but that a later version will do that.

ps. Has Zope the capability to easely make these scripts? I mean not text-based , but in a certain IDE or RAD application?

I would say, yes. I would suggest reading the FAQ, then the documentation, reading the documentation again (especially the DTML and ZSQL documents), read it once more and then if you do decide to try Zope over PHP3, have a go at your application. I think that it's highly likely that you will be able to get by with just some DTML and a database connection. I'm not knocking the documentation here - the DigiCool guys (and gals?) have relatively recently embraced the open-source concept and seem to be doing 10 things at once.

Please, say in some simple words what Zope is and for what it can be used... I've read the web-page. But since I'm a stupid person in this field of webservers I can't understand what they are explaining.

I don't think you're stupid at all! :) There are some new and unusual concepts in Zope that many people will not be familiar with (particularly if you're coming from a 'traditional' web-publishing environment). If it helps, I've been in contact with several other people, both here in the UK and elsewhere who are *extremely* excited about what Zope is and what it can do.

Thanks in advance. Kind regards, Tom.

You're welcome - I got a lot of help starting out, just trying to pass it along... :) tone ------ Dr Tony McDonald, FMCC, Networked Learning Environments Project The Medical School, Newcastle University Tel: +44 191 222 5888 Fingerprint: 3450 876D FA41 B926 D3DD F8C3 F2D0 C3B9 8B38 18A2