Debating web development toolsets

[Kareem Shehata]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-tlug-lxSQFCZeNF4 at public.gmane.org [mailto:owner-tlug-lxSQFCZeNF4 at public.gmane.org] On Behalf Of Myles
> Braithwaite
> Sent: Monday 07 January 2008 18:44
> To: tlug-lxSQFCZeNF4 at public.gmane.org
> Subject: Re: [TLUG]: Debating web development toolsets
> 
> I believed in the marketing hype and it made me stupid. When ever I
> had to leave the
> RoR environment it took a day to get back up to speed.

Is that good stupid or bad stupid?  Seriously, I've hit the same thing going
from microcontroller code to C++ or Java a few times and back, and the
difference in mindset felt like shifting half a dozen gears.  If it simply
makes life easier, then I'm all for it.
 
> ASP.NET isn't really a language but a glorified template language you
> will have
> to use C#, J#, C++, IronPython, and VisualBasic. I gave a presentation
> on IronPython
> and ASP.NET at PyGTA a while ago:
> http://wiki.mylesbraithwaite.com/Presentations/2007/PyGTA-IronPython

That's pretty cool, I didn't know you could use Python in ASP.  Not quite a
reason to jump onto ASP, but neat nevertheless.

> > Python: Don't know much about python beyond Mailman.  Looks like a
> > decent
> > scripting language, can it do reports and interface mySQL well?
> 
> Python is my favorite language of all time. I find it best for web
> development because
> of it's status. It can handle the enterprise-level apps and small
> websites.

That's pretty much what I'm looking for: something that can start small and
grow big, with solid support.  How well does it interface databases?

> If you interested I would suggest taking a look at some web frameworks
> like Django,
> web.py, and TurboGears.

TurboGears looks like it could be pretty good.  How does it compare to RoR?
 
> It really matters what exactly you are developing. If you are
> developing a simple website
> i.e. a blog and some flatpages, I would suggest PHP or Perl. If you
> want a step high than that
> I would suggest RoR. If you are doing something a little more
> complicated I would suggest
> Python. If you have some money behind you Java and ASP.NET are the way
> to go.

This suggests to me that I should look at RoR or Python.  I suppose the
question becomes: which one does the better job of making database-driven
sites and reporting easiest, since that will be the bulk of the sites I work
with.

> Hope any of that helped, if your coming to TLUG tomorrow we could
> discus further over beer.

Definitely!  Thanks for the ideas.  I may or may not be able to make it out
tomorrow, it depends entirely on how long things run in the
afternoon/evening.

Cheers,

-kms

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