Development platform advice

monktus

monktus

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I'm developing a dynamic website that is based around a calendar system, that should also be able to talk to calendar apps. Ideally I'd like to be able to display calendars for various users on the same screen.

I'd assumed that this would be developed in PHP/MySQL as it's open source and I have a friend who's been working PHP based stuff. However I was wondering how WebDAV could fit into the picture and if there are other alternatives. Ideally I'd like to be able to do it on my own, or with minimal help, but I'm not really a programmer. I know Lingo pretty well and I've dabbled with PHP, JavaScript, AppleScript and Ada but apart from basic scripts, most of my experience is going in an editing existing stuff rather than starting from scratch.

I thought I'd may as well explore any alternative so I'm also (trying to) trying out IBM EasyWebsiteBuilder and ASP.NET for the hell of it. Basically I was wondering if anyone had any recommendations for a development platform, preferably as designer-cum-programmer friendly as possible. Ideally I'd like to stick with open source but time is also an issue so I'd be willing to go with proprietary stuff.

I know this might come across as me being lazy and trying to avoid learning more hardcore scripting but, as I said, it would be nice to be able to do as much of this project myself, as quickly as possible.

Cheers,
Craig
 
It really depends, there are a lot of things to consider when choosing a platform.

The reason a lot people use PHP/MySQL is because it is free, and they work so well together. However, when using straight PHP you end up doing a lot more work because you have to parse form data and there aren't any robust control libraries built in like there are with .NET. PHP Doesn't have the same 'Visual' ease as .NET does either.

.NET on the other hand has everything that PHP does not. Its a framework, so it takes away a lot of the arduous takes, such as parsing the form data. It makes it super easy to get information in and out of a page its almost a joke. The visual studio environment helps you get your code down faster because you don't have to remember every property of said object. There are quite a few useful controls at your disposal, and quite a few available on the internet as well. .NET also has its downsides, like cost of Windows hosting, which is getting better. The framework can also be kind of restricting some times and make certain things harder than if you had just coded it your self. Lots of hacks going on sometimes. The IDE can also annoy the pants off you if you are anal about clean looking html code. It always moves my crap around, I HATE it.

As far as learning goes... You could definitely make a quick page that does something neat a lot faster in ASP.NET, that said I have quite a bit of programming experience and I found ASP.NET really easy to pickup.

Oh also, you gotta think about your personal development computer. If you are on a Mac .NET is pretty much out of the picture. You could get by using a text editor, but you would have to upload the file to the server all the time and use strictly code on the page (no code behind) which kinda defeats the purpose of .NET.
 
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