On 4/3/07, Sales Info <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > BTW: What direction are you moving in - Python, PHP, Ruby, other, all?
I'd love to answer "All," but I'm not twenty any more, when I listed a dozen languages I had worked in on my resume. That was a long time ago (and there weren't many more than a dozen languages!). Just as I've used HTML-Kit, VFP, West-Wind, SQL Server, IIS, Windows, SlickEdit, SourceSafe, Visual MaxFrame, Codebook, FoxFire!, Stonefield and more in my toolbox in my VFP days, I think it's important to be quite familiar with a variety of tools, platforms and languages. So I've spent some time learning Linux, Apache, bash, CVS, svn, vi, emacs and SciTE, Perl, Python, PHP. And bringing along knowlege of HTML, CSS, SQL and more. For web-based applications and installing a lot of freely-available stuff, it's important to have a good level of familiarity with Apache configuration files, PHP settings and how to override them globally and locally, MySQL permissions, scripts and administrative tools. That lets you work with tools like Trac, Joomla, Xaraya, WebCalendar, Drupal. And design perfectly decent web applications. There's a zillion web frameworks and PHP add-ons. I haven't worked with the same one twice, yet. And I'm sorely tempted to work with Django, a well-reputed Python framework, as I get closer to mastering Python. For rich-client applications, I'm totally sold on Dabo: Python, wxWidgets, ReportLab and the right database for the application. Ed and Paul are on the right course. Lots of the choices are pragmatic. I passed the MySQL Core Certification because clients are looking for MySQL skills and they have a snazzy logo I can add to the business cards. Depending on the applications, PostgreSQL, SQLite, BerkeleyDB, Firebird or even Oracle may be more appropriate. It's always worth learning more than one. I'm also pushing RedHat as my distro of choice, again for pragmatic reasons. SuSE's not financially stable and sold out to a software patent protection con-job and made a devil's deal I can't be part of. Many of my clients want the assurance of a commercial support contract and a 24x7 support SLA. The distro's not bad, and it keeps a bunch of Americans employed. Full disclaimer: I liked the company so much, I bought a little stock. So far, I think I'm $3 ahead. There's more, too: ssh, PuTTY, public/private keys. SVN as server, command line, DAV-module and more. Samba for sharing with Windows clients. phpMyAdmin or pgAdmin III for data management. OpenOffice.org for reports, spreadsheets, drawings. Dia for diagrams. Eclipse as an IDE in one situation. I've always believed a good developer has to know the OS and netowrk as well, or they can't get their apps to work, so I've learned more network engineering than I'd prefer, 'cause someone's got to do it. I am having a blast. Not a day goes by when I don't get to learn something new. This is as much fun as BRIEF, dBASE III+, Clipper Summer 87, and FoxBase were in 1987. > I'm loving PHP - it feels pretty natural to me. Impressed with the scope > of its libraries. It's not a toy, though it started out that way. There's a lot of bad procedural code around, but there's a decent object-based (not really -oriented) model. Lots of libraries and extensions. > I'm trying to like Python. Haven't had my "aha" moment yet. Plan on > downloading the latest Dabo release soon and giving it another try. I don't think Dabo is the way to learn Python. That's like trying to figure out FoxPro while trying to get CodeBook's .H files to compile correctly. I worked through Lutz' Programming Python and attend the local Python SIG monthly. Still grokking it, but it's not internalized yet. > I continue to look at Ruby (ROR) based on the deafening buzz but I'm > still not sold. "Greenspun's Tenth Rule of Programming: any sufficiently complicated C or Fortran program contains an ad hoc informally-specified bug-ridden slow implementation of half of Common Lisp." - Philip Greenspun "Including Common Lisp." - Robert Morris "Some may say Ruby is a bad rip-off of Lisp or Smalltalk, and I admit that. But it is nicer to ordinary people." - Matz, LL2 (Ruby author) Source: http://www.paulgraham.com/quotes.html -- Ted Roche Ted Roche & Associates, LLC http://www.tedroche.com _______________________________________________ Post Messages to: ProFox@leafe.com Subscription Maintenance: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profox OT-free version of this list: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profoxtech Searchable Archive: http://leafe.com/archives/search/profox This message: http://leafe.com/archives/byMID/profox/[EMAIL PROTECTED] ** All postings, unless explicitly stated otherwise, are the opinions of the author, and do not constitute legal or medical advice. This statement is added to the messages for those lawyers who are too stupid to see the obvious.
