Web Applications

[NatalieM]

I develop Google Android apps, therefore I use Java (no choice) but I'm also interested in developping web applications.

Java would seem an obvious choice as I already know the language but I'd like to hear about all alternatives as I don't mind learning a new language if I can see its benefits for my projects. I also have experience with CSS, JavaScript and PHP, but as I said, I'm not particularly looking into using a language I know, I want to use the tools that are appropriate to the project(s).

So, I'd like to hear from all programmers in the field of web applications (those who use Java as well as those who use other languages):

1) Which language(s) and framework(s) do you use?
2) Which other development tools do you use (libraries etc)?
3) Why do you use them?
4) In which situations wouldn't you use them?
5) In which situations would you think somebody is a fool not to use them?
6) Are they suited for team development? (in terms of tools they provide for sharing code between several developers)
7) Are they suited for lone programmer development? (in terms of having a community of users out there a lone programmer can get help from, in terms of being easy to install and run on a bedroom computer etc)
8) Add anything you want to add

[outsid3r]

I never developed web applications in Java, so i can't comment about it, but i have used (and i'm still using) PHP to develop web applications. PHP basically sucks, it has some nice features but sucks, believe me, and it's not very productive. The default big set of functions have some bugs, and don't provide any web security at all, useless you use things like 'mysql_real_escape_string' everywhere to filter SQL injection. To make the things secure and more effective in PHP you must learn some new libraries like PEAR for example. PHP also don't have any built in feature for templating, so you must learn another library, like smarty, and you lose a lot of time with this, and in addition, PHP syntax it's not very short comparatively to python or ruby. Conclusion: Better forget PHP useless you must obligatorily use it in your job, if it's the case then you can try:

PEAR (contains database abstraction classes, web services, encryption, and much more)
PEAR - PHP Extension and Application Repository

Smarty (for easy and fast templating, you should separate presentation from business logic)
Smarty : Template Engine

There are some frameworks for PHP that i never tried, like zend, you should check them if you're interested.


About other languages, i never tried them (i have tried ASP.NET for some time, and it seems better than php). For what i have been reading, Ruby (Ruby on Rails) it's extremely productive, and Django for Python i also have heard that is really good. You should try them, specially ruby and python, they have really a nice and short syntax and they are very productive. I really like python syntax, but never used it for web applications.

[NatalieM]

Thanks for your feedback outside3r but may I ask why you are still using PHP for developping web apps if you think it's such a bad language? Just curious

[QuackWare]

I personally use ASP.Net and C# to write web applications but the downside to this is that it (mostly) only works on Windows servers. PHP is good for developing web apps just because it is so easy to learn and so widely used by everyone in the web community.

[TriggerHappy]

C# (.NET?) has some decent web libraries. Sometimes they are more bloated then they should be but nonetheless they are easy to use and understand. Though for console applications ruby has a nice slick NET:HTTP class.