[Zope] Zope Vs PHP

[Tony McDonald]

At 10:27 am +0000 8/11/99, Richard Moon wrote:
>As someone who is evaluating various tools for producing dynamic web 
>pages linked to databases perhaps some of you might be able to guide 
>me.
>
>I know Zope and PHP aren't exactly equivalent  - but under what 
>conditions would you favour Zope over PHP and vice versa ?
>
>Thanks in advance
>

PHP is faster. It's also a more 'conventional' web applications 
system (ie files generally get strewn around the file system - well 
at least they did with me!). This may or may not be a problem, you 
could use CVS to manage PHP files, whereas in Zope the versioning and 
undo feature is superb.
Zope is fast enough. The database connectivity in Zope is easier than 
PHP (and more transparent, ie replace MySQL with Oracle), PHP wants 
too much handholding to get a DB query done.

I'm leaning towards the idea that Zope is a very good system for 
distributed authoring *and management!* of materials, something that 
PHP would find much more difficult to do (it's based on the model of 
serving a file from a filesystem, whereas Zope serves objects, and an 
object can be a complex beastie).

Getting a system up and running quickly is much easier to do in Zope 
than PHP (I wouldn't like to guess how long it would take a PHP 
programmer to get something like Phils' ZGold up and running - 
http://d031.ml.uwcm.ac.uk/z/zGold).

A lot of products are becoming available for Zope now and they can be 
used as building blocks to create your own Web system - most PHP 
'products' tend to be full systems, ie a MySQL administrator suite.

hasn't *really* answered the question, but HTH,
Tone
ps I've used PHP since it was PHP/FI and all the way through PHP3, 
and dropped it when I came across Zope...
------
Dr Tony McDonald,  FMCC, Networked Learning Environments Project 
http://nle.ncl.ac.uk/
The Medical School, Newcastle University Tel: +44 191 222 5888
Fingerprint: 3450 876D FA41 B926 D3DD  F8C3 F2D0 C3B9 8B38 18A2