application serving? (zope/corba/mod_python/webware/cgi)

[Nick Bower]

i'm trying to learn a little about using python for web applications,
and have come across various ways to do it.

my very basic understanding is that mod_python/webware are server-side
incude type things (all fine there), but then someone told me that
embedding a persistent interpretter like this is a fairly fickle way of
operating, and a full corba implementation is more robust.  can someone
explain the difference to me?  and where zope fits into this scheme?

perhaps someone could reccommend some reading on this area - the ways of
executing code from the web seem to be very fundamentally different.