[Zope] Possible new user questions

[Evan Simpson]

Derek Simkowiak wrote:

> I'm considering starting it with Zope, which I have only recently
> discovered.  However, I have the following "fears":
>
> 1) It will be too slow

How slow is too slow?  Zope's speed relative to static page servers isn't
very meaningful when you're serving dynamic pages (as you seem to be planning
to do).  Even if Zope ran your particular application more slowly than some
other solution, as long as it's fast enough you still win if you have cut
development time, eased maintenance, added features, or saved license and
support fees.  The Mindcraft benchmarks come to mind, here.  Their
configuration of Apache on Linux didn't serve requests as fast as IIS on NT,
but it still was fast enough to saturate an OC-3, so who cares?

> 2) I will get trapped into the product

Any product with a learning curve will 'trap' you in this sense.  DTML and
Zope application structuring can be hairy, depending on what you are trying
to do.  You rarely need to know more about Python than its expression syntax,
which is unremarkably similar to that of C, Pascal, Basic, etc.  The only
time you would need any in-depth knowlege of Python would be to hack the Zope
source or write extensions (Products or external interfaces).  Come to think
of it, Python is as much easier to learn than the rest of Zope as C is than
the full set of standard C libraries and APIs.

Or to put it another way, I deliberately created a PythonMethod product in
order to allow me to write more Python and less DTML :-)

> 3) I won't be able to do what I'm used to

You mainly mention virtual hosting here, so I'll plug my SiteAccess product.
It handles virtual hosting with ease, and also allows you to perform various
nifty tricks with URLs and request pre-processing.

Integration of PHP and other CGI programs is best handled by sticking Apache
in front of everything, IMHO, which also gives you SSL and allows you to
easily manage and serve static content like images.

Cheers,

Evan @ 4-am