abyss web server, drupal, clean urls, mod_rewrite, voting

hi...

i'll post this in aprelium's forum as well.

i have been happily using abyss web server, the new version of which has fastcgi and php, perl, asp.net, and rubyrailification, all that muccajucca. i'm feeling loyal and want to see if i can solve this and use abyss, and i think a good, clearly presented solution would help drupal spread, as abyss provides sweet features and ease of use with nice performance. i host my web at home via dynamic ip but please don't hate me for these three strikes: 1) windows; 2) non-apache; 3) self-hosting. whatever we don't agree on, drupal binds us.

sadly, i find abyss web server doesn't support or emulate mod_rewrite and thus doesn't work with clean urls and with some modules, notably the voting module (the one with 5 stars). i've found some hacks which i was unable to make work, lacking any concrete, specific instructions for drupal. see http://www.aprelium.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=46856#46856

my version of the code i'm trying now as my 404.php page is this...i have drupal in a /drupal directory off the root.

/* Add in this array the list of (old path => new path) pairs */ 
$redirection = array( 
   '^drupal/(.*)$' => '/drupal/index.php?q=$1' 
); 

/* Get the URI and trim leading slashes */ 
$uri = ltrim($_SERVER["REDIRECT_SCRIPT_NAME"], "/"); 

foreach ($redirection as $key => $value) 
{ 
   if (eregi($key, $uri)) 
   { 
        /* Convert the replacement string syntax - $1 -> \1 */ 
        /* and perform the substitution */ 
      $new_uri = eregi_replace($key, str_replace("$", "\\", $value), $uri); 
      break; 
   } 
} 

if (isset($new_uri)) 
{ 
   header("Status: 307"); 
   header("Location: $new_uri"); 
   exit; 
} 

following that is html to display if this is a real 404. i left it out since i didn't know how that would post in the forum. i activated this 404.php page by setting it as the custom 404 in abyss, and it is working in that a real 404 produces the 404 message.

i'm wondering if it's a matter of a misplaced or missing character. i know zilch as you can see but am learning so i appreciate your kind assistance.

from drupal i still get the following when trying to enable clean urls...

It appears your host is not configured correctly for Clean URLs. Please check for ModRewrite support with your administrator.
The configuration options have been saved.

the five-star "voting" module now does not show "error" as it did, but the votes are not persistent upon refresh and a look in the mysql db shows no entries in that table.

i also noted and tried to make work with abyss the iis solution for settings.php as in http://drupal.org/node/3854 but to no avail thus far.

i've researched this seriously and am devoted to abyss and drupal but have to say i wish drupal did not depend on mod_rewrite. i also wish for an open source mod_rewrite hack for other web server programs somehow. i realize i may have just said a horrible or stupid or both thing, but it's feedback for those who think all feedback is good.

if i end up abandoning abyss, sadly, is xampp a good way to get apache installed for drupal? i've done the mysql and php by hand already and am using that with SQLyog to admin the db. this article http://ckunte.com/archives/2005/09/20/xampp/ has me thinking if i can't fix this in a day or two i give that a shot.

lastly, peripherally, i am going to be creating a community site to coexist and interact with an existing website of 15,000 photos. i am certain a new community site will be a great thing but i will have many challenges porting over the images, or finding a way to link to them or bring them into drupal so they can be randomly shown, voted on, all that. any comments on that issue are welcome.