Simple discussion of python cgi approaches?

[Kylotan]

[Apologies if anyone sees this twice - at first I attempted to post it
via my ISP's news server, but my ISP is notorious for poor news
handling and I don't see it on Google Groups as having got through
yet.]

I've been writing a CGI app with Python 2.3 and Apache. It's ok, but a
bit slow, and I assume a significant part of this is the process
start-up time, among other things. So I'm interested in alternatives
or optimisations. The problem is, there doesn't seem to be the kind of
information out there that I want. There seem to be plenty of places
that throw a list of URLs at you (eg.
http://www.python.org/cgi-bin/moinmoin/WebProgramming,
http://phaseit.net/claird/comp.lang.python/web_python.html), and a few
sites that will give the absolute basics of CGI programming itself
(which I don't need).

I'm particularly confused by a few people advocating things like
Xitami + LRWP for being very simple, yet it can't possibly be simpler
than just dropping a cgi script into a directory, as I do with Apache,
and the docs on LRWP
(http://www.imatix.com/html/xitami/index12.htm#TOC114) make it look
like I'd have to do significant rewriting of the scripts. It describes
itself as being like FastCGI which, if true, doesn't exactly endear
FastCGI to me either.

All I want is a short description on the technologies that very
closely resemble standard CGI, what they have to offer me, and what
sort of alterations I would have to make to my installation or code in
order to use these. Does such a comparison exist already? If not, is
anybody able to comment on their own experiences with Python CGI apps?

-- 
Ben Sizer