[thelist] What tools should I use?

Matt Warden mwarden at gmail.com
Mon Sep 12 15:11:57 CDT 2005


On 9/12/05, Ian Anderson <ian at zstudio.co.uk> wrote:
> >Just because it is pre-installed on the PC, doesn't mean the cost
> >should be dismissed. You still pay for it, and it should be factored
> >into the total cost of developing with Windows-only technology.
> >
> >
> I don't know where you are going with this. The idea presented was that
> to start developing with ASP/IIS/SQLServer you are going to have to lay
> out vast hidden costs in seats, which isn't the case.

"Where I'm going with this" is that Windows licenses cost money,
regardless of whether you purchase a no-OS system and then buy a
Windows license or whether you buy a system with Windows
pre-installed.

> I was referring to PHP and MySQL specifically. It's a subjective
> opinion, but too often you have to go to 3rd party sites to get the
> basic facts about these.

I think php.net is one of the easiest-to-use reference sites out there
(it has to be, because the language is a mess with all those
functions). How much easier can you get than:

http://php.net/functionname

> PHPMyAdmin makes it look like you should have an opinion. You know it
> has a default, but it's news to me.

Submit it as a bug to phpmyadmin? I don't know. I've never used it to
create database schema.

> Griping aside, I did a job this week working with a guy who set all the
> database selects up using PEAR db classes; really nice to work with once
> you get your head round the daft -> syntax for object properties.

I prefer dot notation, as well. But, yeah, you get used to it.

> I do like some bits of PHP, but overall LAMP sometimes feels like a
> low-end, duck tape environment. Ironically, the most recent headache
> came from running the PHP mail function on a Windows server with \n
> escaped characters in the strings. Yes, it tells you in the PHP manual
> you need \r instead, and once I read the same damn page a hundred and
> fifty times it sunk in. Would it kill the SMTP server to return error
> codes back to the web app?

Well, now you're blaming PHP for a Windows oddity. If PHP forced you
to use Linux like ASP does for Windows, these kinds of issues would be
a lot less frequent.

That said, it wouldn't kill PHP to check for '\r' and print a NOTICE
error message.



-- 
Matt Warden
Miami University
Oxford, OH, USA
http://mattwarden.com


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