[Zope] only know HTML; how easy to learn Zope?

[Joel Burton]

On Tue, 27 Feb 2001, Paul Newman wrote:

> I only know HTML. No programming. I found Learning 
> Python very difficult. But I do (just 
> about!) manage to run FreeBSD :-)
> 
> How hard is it for non-programmers to learn Zope? 
> Would PHP be easier? How many of you guys 
> graduated from Python to 
> Zope? If I only know HTML can I realistically 
> learn anything beyond the very basics of Zope or 
> am I looking at learning Pyhton in parallel?
> 
> Should I start with the Zope Book? Should I start 
> learning python at the same time? If Learning 
> Python was hard, which book do you recommend?

Zope isn't really a *language* (like PHP), but a *platform*, and as such,
you can make it very easy or very deep.

Using Zope to post web pages, handle basic user authentication, etc., is
very easy--you could learn in two hours how to replicate a normal, static
web site in Zope--and you'd get the benefits of its web content management
interface.

A few more hours will give you ideas about using <dtml-in> to iterate over
things (to create site maps automatically, and lists), and a few more will
give you confidence in basic SQL database connectivity.

The reality is that you can do these things w/o any 'real' programming,
whereas in PHP, you'd have to get your hands in more code.

The new Zope Book is (IMHO) the best starting resource for Zope. It's not
perfect--it can be a bit dense at times--but take it slowly and good luck!


I think you only need to learn Python if you want to do some Zope
development, which is further down the road for you. (tho' Python is a
fairly straightforward language, and learning little chunks, like handling
lists and such, will help you w/many things.) Learning Python
(O'Reilly) seems to be most people's choice for a first-Python book.

Good luck!

-- 
Joel Burton   <jburton@scw.org>
Director of Information Systems, Support Center of Washington