Zope vs. mod_python!? It was "Re: [mod_python] mod_python & MySQLdb question: Done"

On Giovedì, dic 18, 2003, at 17:45 Europe/Rome, <tpc at csua.berkeley.edu> 
wrote:

>
> hi Giampiero, can I ask you, being a newbie to Python
> myself, why you are switching to modpython from Zope ?
> I have heard many good things about Zope but have not
> had the time to download and use it, but from what I hear
> if you want to serve a complex database-backed application
> there is no better way.

I'm not sure I can give a detailed and precise answer to your question.
Please keep in mind that I don't have any formal education in 
programming
but in photography and arts.

As far as I can see, Zope is a great tool, well designed and with great
performance. I started using it 2 years ago and it took me quite some 
time
to figure it out. I developed a few sites using it: www.cercacultura.it 
is
one of them. cercacultura.it is totally Zope based and uses the internal
ZODB database.

What triggered my curiosity in python/mod_python is the fact that Zope 
is
built "over" python and actualy the right way to use it is to keep the
business logic in python and the presentation in dtml, the Zope markup
language.
Now I am starting to experience Zope as a kind of "filter" that doesn't 
let
me really understand what is going on underneath. A sort of second 
language
that prevents you from speaking your first language. For this reason I 
am
starting to feel the limits of Zope.

What I can say now is that learning python created a new challenge and a
way to find faster and more transparent solutions. I also read that with
mod_python you can actually use some Zope modules (Zpublisher for 
example).
I very much like the mod_python integration in apache, which allows to
bypass the zope server.

There is much more to say about it, and I'm sure other people on the 
list
can be more articulate on this issue.

Thanks,

Giampiero