I haven't built a dynamic website since I was in high school, so I'm a little out-of-touch. Is the PHP/MySQL combo still most designer's weapon of choice? Or has something new and fancy taken its crown (Python, Ruby, ASP etc)? Or should I try one of these fancy new web application frameworks (RoR, Django, Google App Engine)? It's only a small project for myself and colleagues that I'll complete in my spare time, but there is a good chance it will take off in a big way - so I want to begin with a solid foundation just in case it needs to scale fast. Thanks.
Ruby is quick, once you find your way around it. ASP/PHP are very similar in that they provide similar functionality. Personally, I tend to stick to PHP, as it's a tool I know rather well, and one that I know can handle load.
I'd recommend CodeIgniter. Very handle little framework. Build your database tables, then grab iScaffold, which is the "best" CRUD generator I've found for it. Your website will be up and running in a day, and CodeIgniter is very, very fast, and scalable.
Ruby on Rails is awesome, but it feels horrible to use anything else now. It depends really on what you're already familiar with.
^^ +1 It's a preference thing. My poison of choice would be PHP/MySQL, WordPress or ASP.NET, dependant on what exactly is required. Other people like working with Ruby on Rails, Yet others with Java Applets. There's no RIGHT and WRONG. There's only what you're most comfy with, and what you know best. I'd proabbyl stay away from old ASP, though... it's deprecated by now.
completely depends on whom is going to use it and what it is for i would probably like to use silverlight personally
Thanks for all the suggestions guys. I decided to go back to PHP and use Zoon's suggestion of CodeIgniter. I've spent the last couple days playing around with it using sample code and I'm absolutely loving it - it's insane how much I've already done in just two evenings. Also started playing with the JQuery library, which really helps the database feel more 'alive'. And again, so easy to use. BTW, if anyone here could recommend a good IDE, I'd be very grateful. Currently I'm just using Notepad++ and while it's pretty good, it's not very sophisticated. I'm looking for something to create HTML/CSS/JS/PHP files in, with code highlighting/completion and FTP synchronisation. Any suggestions? One last thing - what the **** is wrong with Internet Explorer? I've know it's got a bad reputation for only supporting dated and broken standards, but it's making my life hell. Almost every test piece of code works perfectly in Firefox/Chrome/Safari but somehow breaks or looks ugly in IE. Is there a tutorial/guide somewhere for writing code in a way that doesn't break IE?
Regarding IDEs ... well I use VMware Server 2.0 to run a Linux box on a host-only network, and I have samba enabled. I map a network drive and edit the files directly, then run them in a browser. I then use Notepad++ because its good enough for me. I'm glad you found CodeIgniter as good and time saving as I did - its insane how quickly you can bash a website out. I did the frontend of a mods/addons (skins, maps, etc for games like CS:S, COD4, etc) in 1 day. It renders pages very quickly as well. It took me three days to write a code generator for it, including an admin system, which I learned how to do based on how iScaffold works. Regarding internet explorer - basically you're screwed. Its unimaginably annoying how differently it renders things. My number one tip is when dealing with margins and padding, Firefox/Safari/Chrome render it to the specs (which is with something like a 3px margin top and bottom 0px right and left, whereas IE renders it with a 6px bottom margin. Best tool for CSS debugging is Firebug. If you don't have it yet, get it. There's even a Javascript based version of it you can use with IE. The general way to develop for the web these days is to write it for Firefox and it'll work in just about everything except IE, then make an IE-specific CSS file which unbreaks everything. Technically its possible to write IE specific commands in the same style sheet, but the only time I gave that a serious go, it made the stylesheet an absolute nightmare to read, and didn't fix everything I needed without breaking stuff in everything else. Seperate stylesheets and a simple browser detection code in the header to make sure it links to the correct stylesheet work best IMO.
nice zoon also when writing.. you really don't have to write from scratch- everything's pretty much been written I use notepad myself.. it's a pain but even the older ie browsers need legacy code if you want to cater to everyone here's a good file repository if you need to get something like that up and running as a start.. not sure what kind of database your building http://www.hotscripts.com/listing/w2box-web-2-0-file-repository-for-php/
I use CODA on the Mac for web coding. It does the auto closing, etc all for me. As for frameworks, I am not really happy with any one I've used so far. So I have in time built me a set of standard templates that do the whole "Layout and cleared CSS" thing for me. Seeing as I don't use Photoshop to design a lot anymore (all CSS/Markup), this process works for me. As For jQuery: it's brilliant I've written my own plugins for it at some point (though I never put them into the jQuery repository). One thing, though: I tend to make sure that it works in a solid way first, and then only do I plug in any javascript. That way you're ensuring compatibility with older browsers and JS-Off browsers. Then... IE. The Idea here is to put basic layout down, then move into a refine->test cycle. Again, this is something that lends itself to designing in the browser rather than in PS. I've done my share of fairly complex designs, and I can promise you that most IE problems (Even IE6, which is pretty much as bad as it gets) are not all that hard to circumvent (at least the CSS bits). Javascript is a different beast though...
