[thelist] Developing for Multiple Platforms

[Pete Prodoehl]

Well, people often talk about the LAMP platform (Linux, Apache, MySQL, 
Perl/PHP/Python) and while the word 'Linux' is in there, Mac OS X and 
even Windows (as well as the BSD's an *nix's) often work as well.

You mention being able to just 'plug you app in' but what you plug it 
into might be a deciding factor. Will it be sold to organizations that 
typically have Windows/IIS, or folks who run Apache and are comfortable 
with open-source software.

I've found that PHP is pretty popular, though I personally would choose 
Perl because I know it much better, and there's a zillion good CPAN 
modules to do what I need... Python is nice, but probably not as popular 
as PHP. (Not that popularity and quality are proportionate.)

What about the database? MySQL? Postgres? MSSQL? The nice thing about 
perl is the DBI interface abstracts out much of the db specific stuff. 
(Is PHP at that level yet? I don't know.)

I've worked with ColdFusion and PHP a bit, and if I had to choose, I'd 
pick PHP in a second.

Pete


Mike Roberto wrote:
> I must not have explained myself well enough.  Let me try to clarify.
> 
> I have several web apps which have been built in CF.  In the future we can
> see the benefit of having these apps available in other languages.  The
> benefits of simply plugging in our app with a client's web platform is a big
> plus, and a nice selling point for that matter.  Although CF does run on
> multiple platforms, the cost of an open source solution versus CF is a big
> plus.
> 
> What languages should we develop these apps in to then offer our product on
> the most number of platforms.  We're not looking to re-build these apps in
> ASP, PHP, PERL, JSP, and every other language out there.  We would like to
> make a choice based on the fewest languages which would fit the majority of
> web server setups.
> 
> We initially thought of PHP.  It runs on windows and unix and its free.
> How does PHP compare to CF in terms of web development?  What languages
> would you recommend if you were going to build a web app for multiple
> platforms?