I picked this up from the Zope mailing list where the expert python Andreas Jung makes a good mention of comparing PHP to Zope.
"Don't compare PHP with Zope. PHP is a tiny language compared to the fat Zope frameworks. Working with Zope on the scripter level (ZPT, DTMl, ZSQL) requires similar skills as a PHP programmer. If you want to go beyond you have approach open-minded and come a with some solid knowledge in programming and understanding architectural issues in Zope. But when I read some questions here then I have the impression that people except that Zope solves their problems although neither they don't understand the problems themselves nor have the basic skills to reach the goal."
This is very good because it reminds us that one little part of Zope is what the whole of PHP offers more or less. I like PHP and it's open source community momentum but technically it is very basic compared to Zope.
As Andreas points out, it's not until you want to go beyond scripting that you have to take a step back and accept that Zope has a learning curve.
Comments
one little part of Zope is what the whole of PHP offers more or less???
Wrong idea pal! PHP is a true web programming language and interpreter, and zope is more like application server.
if youre building intranet or closed system than zope is good for that, but for commercial web services or community driven sites (Yahoo/Google/E-bay) i say PHP (btw, im comparing PHP and Zope only). Why? performance wise. Since were talking about intrepreted code here, in PHP i can code totally in procedural style rather than OOP which is nasty and verrryyyy slow. So my conclusion is, Zope is for beginner and PHP although quite easy to learn is tend for hardcore programmer hunger for performance and stuff. But thats just my opinion. :)
lol why don't you just code in assembly language? it's even faster.