[Zope] Zope Newbie Needs Install Help

[John Turner]

Hello, All -

My apologies if this is a sore subject with list members. 

Zope has been generating a lot of buzz, so I decided to check it out.  I
have been through the bugs list, the online docs, the docs distributed
with Zope, and have searched this list, to no avail.  Joining the list is
my last resort.

Basically, after two weeks of trying, I have yet to get Zope to work.  I
have tried it on the following:

- redhat 6, compiled from source, on a system with a working
Apache/PHP/MySQL configuration

- WinNT4 using the Zope Win32 binary release

- Win98 using the Zope Win32 binary release

- linux MIPS (Cobalt RaQ2 server) compiled from source, also with a
working Apache/PHP/MySQL configuration

Nothing has worked so far.  It is very frustrating.  The docs do not
coincide with the actual software (port numbers are wrong, installation
steps that are listed in the docs don't happen when you install the
software, etc).

It certainly hasn't been fun.  From the traffic on this list, it looks
like Zope is actually something that works, but so far, I have yet to see
it.  I'm still eager to try it, but my eagerness is fading fast! <grin>
I'm an accomplished webmaster with experience on many platforms, and I've
found my experiences so far with Zope to be extremely discouraging.

Are there any other docs that are better than those found at zope.org and
distributed with the code?  Is there an installation/troubleshooting FAQ
other than the one at zope.org?

I've tried Zope as PCGI with an existing webserver, and also with the
built-in HTTPServer.  Starting up Zope with it's own server on Win32 gets
nothing on either port 8080 or port 9763.  The start.bat file is using the
wrong python executable (python was already installed on the system).  The
problems go on and on, I will not bore you with them.

Any and all help/suggestions would be greatly appreciated.  I realize my
problems and issues may be trivial to most of you, judging by the
qualities of the posts on this list that I've seen so far.  

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide to this Zope newbie.

- John Turner