I was walking on campus last week thinking about the acronym LAMP, which stands for Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP, and realized that if it was on a Windows server running IIS, it would be WIMP.
LAMP or WIMP?
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Tag Archives: web development
Prognosticating on LAMP vs .NET, J2EE
Dvorak wrote an article on PCMAG.com, “Windows Vista: Where’s the Buzz?,” in which he made some predictions on the future of web technology. It all started with his observation on the lack of excitement about Microsoft naming their coming OS as “Vista.”
Linux/Apache will own the server space and with the emergence of MySQL and PHP as the hot development tools over Microsoft .NET and J2EE there will be no way to unseat it. In popular parlance this is commonly referred to as LAMP.
It’s an interesting statement because MySQL and PHP are not as full-featured technologies as .NET and J2EE. So, from a large-scale developement perspective, they aren’t as strong options. They’re getting better with recent versions, but they still just don’t have the features.
But, that said, MySQL and PHP are both available at no-cost (though total cost of ownership is another debate) and they are easier to learn, in part because of the fewer features. The barrier to entry is lower. This fact alone may make Dvorak’s prediction come true.
And, there are some pretty impressive and large-scale web sites out there that use MySQL and PHP, so while they don’t have the depth of the more mature technologies, you can’t really scoff at them. They get the job done.
Dreamweaver MX 2004: Less than great for dynamic web applications
So, I’m supposed to teach a course in Dreamweaver Dynamic Web Applications and one in Dreamweaver/PHP Web Development. In preparation, I’m working on a little project that should help with some internal LCTTP record keeping as well as give me practice using DW to build web apps.
Here’s the trouble: Web applications generally require some custom coding, and with a properly designed database, the SQL queries can prove challenging for DW to handle.
Dreamweaver works by setting up a database connection file, and then you can create what DW calls Recordsets that are based on the database connection. Each Recordset includes the query itself and the code used to retrieve the information. The Recordset then becomes a data resource that can be used to bind specific values to specific elements on a web page.
The trouble is, when you go in to the code to tweak the recordset, DW loses the Recordset. It just disappears from DW’s panel of Application Bindings. This is frustrating.
For a specific example, I was putting together a basic user login screen. I set up the Recordset fine, but I needed to apply an md5 function to a password value that was used in the query. Adding that one line of code to the Recordset causes DW to lose the recordset–which means I then cannot use it for any other data bindings.
My challenge is this: How do I decide to teach this course? Do I discourage people from using DW’s recordsets? That would negate a lot of potential value of using Dreamweaver. Certainly not all value, but it makes much of the GUI pointless. In what other ways is DW a helpful tool for creating dynamic sites? Of course, that is an easily answerable question, but I just need to get my thoughts in order.