[Zope] Need help with evaluation issues of Zope

[Peter.Rupp@ual.com]

All,
I've been evaluating Zope (in comparison with Bea's WebLogic products). 
 I'm a very experienced I.S. guy (both programmer and system admin for 
HP and SUN), but I'm experienced with Python and totally new to Zope.  
(I mention this so you can get into the low-level details without 
hesitation :-) ....however I would like to report a potential bug,  and 
to gain some understanding about the product?  Here goes...

1) Potential bug?  I compiled Zope on an intel machine running Solaris 
2.7 (using gcc 2.8.1) and Python 1.5.2 (latest). I started Zope (using 
Zope's bundled web server) and followed the tutorial in building a 
fictious web site.  After adding various users/passwords to the 
user-acl folder (which existed under the web site's high level folder), 
I restarted another netscape browser to see if I could login to manage 
the site as one of the aformentioned users....Zope would not let me 
login as the new added users, but I could login as superuser.   Next, 
thinking that that perhaps Zope was one of those products that had to 
be restarted to see the new userid's, I attempted to restart zope from 
the management "control-panel" page.  It appears that Zope does 
restart, but.....you cannot access the Zope web site anymore....Zope 
puts up a page saying something to the effect "it tried to perform IO 
on a closed file", then a long list of trace messages.   Also, in the 
xterm window where I started Zope, a message pops up (STDERR) saying 
that it cannot write to some file, then prints what appear to be octal 
zeros \000\000\000. 

Unfortunately, I don't have the specifics with me (I can send that 
along if you want).   Any ideas here?  The remote management ability of 
Zope is stated as a feature, but it concerns me that this simple 
operation fails miserably.  

2)  I think the tutorial is excellent, but it doesn't go into the exact 
meaning(s) of "a Zope user" and what the ACL list is for.  This is 
something I really need help understanding.   To me, "user" could mean 
the following things:
    a) A "site administrator" user...that is I have the ability to go 
through a backdoor at the web-site and perform administrative 
operations....whereby I would login at some point?
    b) A "web surfer" (who really isn't authenticated as a "user") who 
visits the site looking for some information that's made public via the 
web site.  I'm guessing here, but that at some point, administrative 
users come in this way, then when traveling to a different folder 
within the site, are eventually asked to login?
 
    c)  A "paid subscription" user, who after logging in, has access to 
his separate area and can see specific web pages on the site?

These concepts are not very clear from the doc, and would appreciate 
any help understanding Zope's meaning of the word "user".

3) I'm running Oracle 7.3.2 on the same server that Zope's 
intalled...but I couldn't seem to find information on how to connect to 
an Oracle database.  My goal was to run a simple query against a system 
table, and display the results.   The ZSQL guide guides you through a 
"Gadfly" database connection, but I couldn't find anything that would 
connect me to Oracle.  Is there something basic that I have missed here?

4) Does Zope have the capability of aiding the cgi-script programming 
effort for populating a database?  I would like to put up a form, have 
the user input some items, and have these items *inserted* into an 
Oracle database.  Is this feasable, or do I have to write my own 
cgi-interface?  Speaking of cgi, is the only way to run a cgi-script 
from within Zope by creating an external Python method that ultimately 
calls the "system" module?  

Thanks in advance for any help with these issues!
Regards,
==pete==
United Airlines Corp. (whqkt)
847-700-3226
peter.rupp@ual.com