[Zope-dev] zope + speed + persistant db

Evan Simpson evan@4-am.com
Tue, 07 Sep 1999 16:21:59 -0500


Paul Mokbel wrote:

> 1) How fast is zope running as ZServer.. (is it fairly fast).. If I use an
> external python method, and 'import' python modules (if it was previously
> called), will it reload? or am I confused as to how zope works.

"It depends".  ZServer is quite a fast http server.  That said, the actual
speed of your application will depend heavily on how dynamic your content
is.  I have the impression that a simple DTML Document is at least as fast to
render as, say, an ASP page or an AOLServer embedded-Tcl page.  If you're
serving predominantly static pages, Zope will be slower than (say) Apache,
which will be slower than (say) Zeus.  Then again, once you start using Zope
you start to realize how much better your "static" content could be if you
made it dynamic.

Python modules imported by Products or external methods aren't reloaded
unless you use the explicit Python 'reload' command.  External method files
are not imported, though, they are read in and compiled.

> 2) Does zope support persistant MySQL connections *THIS IS A MUST!*.
> Zope, php, mod_perl have some kind of support for persistant SQL
> connections..  In other words, if a previous connection to a DB was opened
> and not closed, it re-uses it automatically. It does increase
> performance..

Zope has persistent connections.  You may want to check zope.org for the
status of the MySQL adapter.,


> 3) Does zope use medusa? If not, WHY!?!?!?! (so far, I'd say that medusa
> is perfect for the operation.. but maybe I'm wrong.. clarify)

ZServer is a specially-licensed variant of Medusa.

> 4) As per the pcgi CGI wrapper that runs under any other web server: Is
> there a speed indifference compared to having the ZServer taking
> care of the http requests.. (pretty obvious, but is it marginal)..

Sorry, couldn't parse this question.

> 5) To be frank, I am not interested in DTML; rather, I am interested in
> the python implementation and the possibility of using it for mission
> critical python CGIs. I previously wanted to implement Python into Boa (a
> fast httpd, and using it strictly for serving out Python CGI's without the
> forking of a process). Is this for me? or perhaps maybe httpdapy or
> pyapache.

Zope is a lot more than DTML, and could probably do everything you want.  If
you want to avoid DTML, you can use External Methods or my (currently alpha)
Python Methods.

Hope this helps,
Evan