Web programming tools

[Dan Shafer]

Mark Lacy writes:

>What web programming tool or tools would you recommend for developing 
>applications when delivery in a standard web browser is required?

A couple of quick answers, Mark. I, too, want to develop primarily Web-centric apps, sometimes in the browser and sometimes outside of it.

Over-simplifying, there are three basic approaches to Web app development. There's what's called LAMP (Linux, Apache, mySQL, and Perl/Python scripting). There's DHTML (combining HTML, JavaScript, XML...open standards technologies all). Finally, there's server-side approaches including ASP, JSP, Cold Fusion, and a few others. (I *think* MC has a CGI model; if so, you could perhaps stay with your favorite tool and still deliver in the browser. I use Revolution, not MC, so I can't be sure I'm right about this, but I am pretty sure Revolution has this capability.)

LAMP and server-side approaches require professional programming skills and, often, teams. To me, the only really viable single-programmer approach to browser-deployed solutions at the moment is DHTML. But there are major restrictions on the user interface UNLESS you are willing either to use Macromedia Flash for the UI (not a bad choice, even though it's proprietary) or to use Jython (Python written in Java) or JavaScript to tie into the Java Swing UI classes for your interface (also a good solution once you understand a few pitfalls for cross-platform deployment).

So I'd first look at MC and/or RR and see if their CGI capabilities will allow you to create your solutions in your favorite tool and deliver them in the browser. If so, you're home free. If not, check out DHTML combined with either Flash (and its ActionScript programming language, which is as accessible as JavaScript) or the Java UI componentry available through Jython and JavaScript.

HTH