PLUG peeps, Preface: I did the whole raw html files, maybe w/javascript back in the mid-90's. I did CGI with C. I did PHP since PHP3 came out. I have attempted several times to look at JavaEE and the lives I've broken because of the rage it induced is tragic to behold. So I'm not "new" to the field, I just haven't done any serious webdev outside of PHP or django in a while.
The problem: Web dev sucks. PHP is still, well, PHP. It was nice as a change of pace from CGI. I like that it's simple, and works easily with Apache. It just doesn't perform well, and it's PHP. The problem I'm faced with is, what else is there, really? How can I just do simple webdev again without the problem that is PHP? (Seriously, when your interpreter performs differently based on what KIND of whitespace you have between your brackets, you are no longer my friend.) Python: Django and Pylons are both overcomplicated and constantly changing. (Is it just a python thing in general to wildly change your codebase on a whim?) I like Django, I've worked with it, but if I wanted to write a blog, right now, I could do it from scratch in a few hours with PHP if I knew nothing of PHP (or in my sister's case when she did so, any programming at all), or I could spend the next 4 days learning django enough to start actually writing the code for my blog in python, and then wonder how the heck it's getting executed under all those layers. Ruby: I realize this is a personal thing, but I hate Ruby. Regardless, Rails is no saner than django, and its performance is still terrible, even if I didn't hate Ruby. A friend of mine like Sinatra, but agrees that the Ruby side too suffers from changing way too much for our tastes between versions. Perl: Well, I've been looking at this. It's still good, but it's still the old CGI model. There's progress with PSGI, but it's all very experimental, or if not considered such, doesn't work with Apache at all (or is just a veneer over CGI/FastCGI). mod_psgi is... less than mature. So I guess if I'm going back to CGI, I'm fine, but that's not "the modern way", is it? Maybe this is stable/mature for Perl? I've never been part of Perl culture, so I don't know. There's my overall feel, what's yours? (Gundy's going to be in here for django, I'm sure. I'm all for it, if it would just get out of the way with it's apps and its huge learning curve) How would you make web dev fun and easy and stable again? (As stable as web dev ever gets, I suppose) -Tod Hansmann /* PLUG: http://plug.org, #utah on irc.freenode.net Unsubscribe: http://plug.org/mailman/options/plug Don't fear the penguin. */
