William Attwood wrote:
On Mon, Apr 7, 2008 at 10:28 AM, thebigdog <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
In reading the archives of this group, you guys seem to be pretty
objective
about what works for certain situations. I have been debating in my
head
for awhile about what is the right programming language for a specific
job.
I am debating PHP frameworks, perl, maybe RIA (flex), and everything
else.
This project is being done from scratch so we have the luxury of
choosing
what we think is best -- hopefully we get it right! I'd appreciate any
insights in what you guys think as I am not a PHP expert.
I think typically this would be done in a client-server environment like
c++, visual basic, .net, etc. However, the customer facing portion of
it
will need to be browser-based since they will be remote to us (around
the
world).
The application is really a business/inventory/process application and
not
your traditional "web" application. Obviously this could be done in
PHP,
but could it be done WELL in PHP and is PHP the best choice?
Chris,
I usually look at various technologies, hardware requirements and customer
requirements before deciding which language to choose. There are other
requirements as well: development lifecycle, cost, employee skill, employee
retention, training and other items. At that point I start to figure out the
architecture requirements and what needs to be accomplished (ie location of
customers, deployment, hardware) and start spec'ing it all out. Then i turn
my attention to development environments and team mechanics. After that i
will start looking at the language to see which one will accomplish the
design by factoring in skill set, training, hiring, cost and a few other
things. Once the language is determined, the planning phase needs to include
how you are going to develop the software...whether that is fully web or
parts are web based and development decisions.
But i would agree with Tyler, most languages are sufficient for what you
are trying to do; however, you need to take a lot more into account when
making that decision. You really don't want to do a java app if all your
guys are php guys; you don't want to do a php app if all your guys are ruby;
etc.
yet there is only one database that you should use - pgsql!!!!
[i just had to say that]
--
thebigdog
I want to add to this, keep in mind PHP is not multi-threaded, which may or
may not be important to your application.
I also agree with PGSQL
-Will
Any production system has 4 key success factors:
1) You have to get it working asap
2) It has to meet basic functional needs
3) Quality control is a must
4) It must be maintainable
From some of the questions, I even wonder should you be writing a
critical production system from scratch? Despite what you might think,
this does sound like a fairly "typical" business app
(order/inventory). So why are you reinventing something from scratch?
You might even be better to act as client's agent and farm out to
someone who's already built systems that do the same kind of thing
well. Or at least find similar systems and copy their approach. Maybe
you just have to change some GUI. Line up your alternative approaches
with how each one meets the success factors and do some ranking. Then
see if you have specific questions as to how certain languages address
the success factors. Many projects get hung up in #2 and the other
factors suffer.
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