Web Development

Way back in 2002/2003, when I just started learning web development, I was faced with a dilemma. There was too many choices and tools that I can use. How many? Let me list them:

1. Perl/CGI
2. ASP - VB
3. PHP
4. JSP - Java
5. Python
6. ColdFusion
7. Flash

(Now we have J2EE, Ruby on Rails, Silverlight, and ASP.Net, to add into the mix.)

So what was the problem and what did I eventually chose to use?
1. Too complicated and unwieldy to use.
2. Mildly messy.
3. Extremely messy bloatware. Check out php problems which list all the problems that I encountered back in 2002/2003, WHICH I STILL ENCOUNTER TODAY.
4. Slooooowwwwww.
5. Mildly messy.
6. Extremely rigid, extremely hard to build code library. Plus, ColdFusion is dead. The current ColdFusion incarnation is actually a Java EE application.
7. Slooooowwwwww, actionscript too unwieldy to use.

What did I do? I learned them all. Jack of all trades, master of none. Of course, to be a good developer, you must master something. So after spending a few months working with all of them, I decided to stick with the ones that passes the ACID (atomicity, consistency, isolation, durability) test. This term is usually used for database transaction, but it works here too heh.

I chose to master the mildly messy and slow development languages/tools/environment. Namely ASP on IIS, JSP on Apache-Tomcat, and Python on Zope. 8 Years later, I'm still doing some web development, but now all I'm working on is ASP.net using C#. Next post I will explain why I am using ASP.net/C#, instead of PHP.

Simple TCP Client Server

I've been busy the last few weeks working on some web application. Some document management system, hotel management system, bills management system... even a project management system. I took a few days break from working on them to do some simple mental exercise. I wrote a client server program.

A lot of people would incredulously say "taking a break for you means writing a socket based client and server program?! And you wrote the client in C# while the server is written in Python?!!"

The answer is yes, and yes. Don't get me wrong, I'm as sane as any other person. My idea of a REAL break is relaxing on the seashore, under a big canopy, with Bob Marley's "Three Little Birds" playing in the background.

Anyways, here it is, the C# client and the Python based server. These are working copy that can be easily modified to turn the client-server into a chat program, a game, or whatever. Have fun!



And now, time to work on my web-base strategy game. :)