[Zope] to zope or not

Michael R. Bernstein webmaven@lvcm.com
Mon, 02 Apr 2001 20:30:27 -0700


Win GO wrote:
> 
> >Well, how does digging a hole with a bulldozer compare to
> >doing it with a shovel? You can accomplish some of the same
> >things by using Apache alone, but you'll end up doing a lot
> >more work for a much smaller result.
> 
> does that mean that Zope can do what Apache can,
> and some more (like animation and stuff)?

Not animation, but database driven web-applications. Apache
on it's own will do nothing but send files from your server
to the browser. You can write CGI scripts in Perl, or any of
a number of other solutions, but you're going to have to go
to something a bit more comprehensive like PHP or JSP in
order to do really powerful web appliactions that let your
users interact with the data in your database.

And even with those, you'll probably have to build a lot of
the underpinnings for your application like security, user
management, etc.

With Zope, most of the common stuff has already been built
for you, and you only need to build those features that are
unique to your site.

> here are other questions:
> 
>     * if we are to have somebody trained or devote some time to learning Zope, what would be basic skills that the person should have? (ie. programming/scripting languages, html, etc.)

Definitely HTML, and programming in some language would
probably be a good idea. Other skills that are useful to
have are: programming in an object-oriented language (such
as C++ or Java, if not Python), a good understanding of
web-application architecture and client server interaction,
a basic understanding of server administration (whatever
platform you use), however much RDBMS and SQL experience you
think they'll need to integrate with your existing
databases, and, umm... I think that covers most of it.

>     * How long will such learning process take? (before we can have a running and functioning site)

Well without knowing what functionality you need, it's hard
to say. A beginner in Zope, who has only HTML and basic
computer skills, could have *something* done in a couple of
days. How good it'll be kind of depends on how quick they
are on the uptake, as well as how good they are at using the
web for research (searching the mailing list archives).

It's also not too likely that this will be anything but the
equivalent of a brochureware site, but *much* easier to
maintain and enhance further.

Anything better or more customized will take more time.

HTH,

Michael Bernstein.