> Let's be careful out there. I have found rookies tend to blindly > evangelically tout their first learned tool as the one and only path of > light to truth and world peace.
Fred, I think you just hit a good part of the reason that PHP and MySQL have mind-share out there when they are lousy tools. I learned PHP, then Perl, then Python and I'm looking at PHP again because my current position uses it. (Did I mention that Perl and PHP are very simliar!?) > IMHO, the best approach to any new task is to first study in depth the > issues, environment, restrictions, and complexities involved, then use > whatever the cheap [EMAIL PROTECTED]@$#%ds in accounting will let you buy. > The > cheaper the better. And if the CEO's nephew happens to like it, all the > better! ;-) [Oh! If it was only a matter of getting it past the number crunchers in accounting! <sigh!>] I'd add, "study the quality of the tools you're evaluating" but this is completely impossible for newbies. So, they just go with what is popular and the "popular <> good quality" problem is perpetuated. One tool may not fit all applications but it's nice when a couple can do 90% of everything so you can leverage your investment. SQLLite/Postgres are those two for databases and Python for scripting, in my experience. I think I should add for future readers that Python is not as approachable for newbies when it comes to web site development. PHP is approachable because it is doesn't require any choices of which framework/style to use. You just "embed your PHP in your HTML" and that's that. Newbies looking at Python probably have an experience about like I did. You'll realize one of two things first. Either, that there are multiple frameworks to choose from and you've no idea which one is "it", or that Zope is the "Killer App" for Python and you're "supposed" to use it. Then you have a good look at Zope and "run away screaming"; it's not very approachable. There's a project, Subway, at http://developer.berlios.de/projects/subway that hopes to make a nice, newbie approachable full web stack that may ease this problem. We'll see how it matures. IMHO, sticking with Python is worth getting over the initial confusion. Python offers a lot of choices, which is great, but you have to do more digging initially. Happy Trails! Scott
