Comments on: Uptown Perl

By: Dead Reckoning » Archive » Six Months in the Sphere

Dead Reckoning » Archive » Six Months in the Sphere — Mon, 01 May 2006 05:39:18 +0000

[...] The technical aspects of keeping a blog up-and-running are engrossing, and as I wrote in a recent nerd-dispatch, my publishing software, WordPress, has kindled a whole new kind of geeklove in me. Layout is a challenge though, and one that’s not as instantly rewarding or enjoyable as I would have thought. Writing CSS for a content management system that produces pages dynamically is not nearly as straight-forward as styling static pages. But the site is almost looking the way I had imagined and it will probably never “get there”—at least not as my first serious attempt. [...]

By: Ads

Ads — Mon, 01 May 2006 05:06:43 +0000

How hard is it to make your own LAMP setup? Can you do it on a crufty old Windows box if you format the hard drive? I’m itching to get busy with a Linux-Apache localhost setup to see how it works. Also, what are the major cons of PHP as you see them? You mentioned security before… Write away, make it long, show you care.

By: Dan

Dan — Mon, 01 May 2006 02:11:44 +0000

Not an expert in this field, but that never stopped me from commenting!

I think that a LAMP environment will be a good way to deliver the AJAX technologies. Keep in mind that you still have the cons of PHP but probably don’t need to learn all of the dirty hacks (hopefully like trying to make PHP an OOL).

Also, my apologies for the post above – it is a severe breach of decorum to post a comment that is longer than the article!

By: Ads

Ads — Sun, 30 Apr 2006 22:23:09 +0000

It's an interesting perspective Dan. I read an startling listserv e-mail the other day about college students at Amherst requesting Rails. Amazing, not so much to think that they would want it but that they would be requesting it as part of their student web services. TextDrive has it covered, in fact it's one of their big draw cards. I've heard similar (good) things about Segment in Australia. WebObjects I don't know much about. One question though, do you see PHP and AJAX coming together in particular ways, or am I misreading your comment about that?

By: Dan

Dan — Sun, 30 Apr 2006 11:23:32 +0000

In a previous job, I had quite some exposure to PHP and MySQL running on Linux and Apache (LAMP). This dates back about 5 years so I can safely say that PHP has never been treated as a serious contender in its field. The same goes for MySQL. A telling moment was when I advertised for a PHP Coder - 80% of applications were under 21, 80% of those were either currently studying or had never studied at a tertiary level. 20% of the applicants tried in some way to change my development environment! Why? PHP is, in my opinion, the Volswagen of scripting languages. It was developed for a specific purpose, embraced by a large number of users and has ended up being used for purposes far beyond its original intentions. For crikey's sake, the first Porsche vehicles were modified VW just as some high traffic sites have used PHP! Does this make PHP a good choice? No, not in every case. If you are an amateur (in the true sense of the word) or otherwise restriced by a tight budget, then you can make PHP do a lot of 'stuff'. We had a fairly comprehensive online training and organisational assesment tool constructed. I'm not well versed in the current limitations of PHP, but there were some procedural and security based concerns during my time with it. But the biggest problem is that is not considered a serious tool by the industry. If you were trying to get funding for your concept, then this was a black mark against you. I can get by in PHP and it is the scripting language that I am most proficient in, but to me is on the same level as BBC Basic. You can do some cool stuff with it for fun, but if you are seriously developing, then use something else. What should you use? PHP. It is becoming more sophisticated, there is lots of free support but the kicker is AJAX. AJAX will shift alot of the scripting to the client and will result in applications with an improved user experience. Example: Google Maps. Another excellent option is Ruby on Rails which aims to minimise the amount of code and configuration required in an application. The system is aware of each module and will facilitate communication if the conventions are maintained. Example Basecamp I especially like the idea of AJAX on Rails. Finally, Apple's WebObjects is also worth looking at for commercial applications. I was impressed by both the deveopment environment and time to deploy. I haven't had a lot of exposure other than as a user. I'll leave it as an exercise for the reader to explore these ideas!