If you are looking for abstract reasons to determine which programming tool
to use for a library project, it's worth considering long term support for
your institution. If the future technical support at your institution is 1
librarian-turned-coder (and you don't have strong personal preferences), you
might want to think about which languages/tools/frameworks are commonly
available amongst this pool (I think you'll find PHP/Ruby much more often
than Java, for example). That way your institution isn't up-a-creek when you
leave and they hire your replacement.

-emily lynema
NCSU Libraries

2010/1/6 Alejandro Garza Gonzalez <[log in to unmask]>

> Well, I'll quickly run down why we chose Drupal (hence, PHP). I mention
> Drupal because to me it's more of a framework which just happens to have a
> CMS built on top of it =)
>
> Before Drupal, my team knew PHP. We had PHP books in the library, students
> were learning some PHP in classes, etc.
>
> We were lured to Drupal because other libraries were using it (AADL at the
> time). It seemed to have good code, good security, and could be "hacked
> politely" (or "extended") and securely (if you follow the rules). Most of
> all, Drupal has good people behind it =)
>
> Now, "even though" Drupal is PHP (and, as some say, PHP lets you be as
> insecure and as bad a coder you want...) the code that goes into its core
> has pretty strict coding standards. Of course you can find lots of modules
> which are not up to par, but you can depend on core to be tight.
>
> _alejandro
>
> marijane white said the following on 05/01/2010 05:04 p.m.:
>
>  Greetings Code4Lib,
>>
>> Long time lurker, first time poster here.
>>
>> I've been turning over this question in my mind for a few weeks now, and
>> Joe
>> Hourcle's postscript in the Online PHP Course thread has prompted me to
>> finally try to ask it. =)
>>
>> I'm interested in hearing how the members of this list have gone about
>> choosing development platforms for their library coding projects and/or
>> existing open source projects (ie like VuFind vs Blacklight).  For
>> example,
>> did you choose a language you already were familiar with?  One you wanted
>> to
>> learn more about?  Does your workplace have a standard enterprise
>> architecture/platform that you are required to use?  If you have chosen to
>> implement an existing open source project, did you choose based on the
>> development platform or project maturity and features or something else?
>>
>> Some background -- thanks to my undergraduate computer engineering
>> studies,
>> I have a pretty solid understanding of programming fundamentals, but most
>> of
>> my pre-LIS work experience was in software testing and did not require me
>> to
>> employ much of what I learned programming-wise, so I've mostly dabbled
>> over
>> the last decade or so.  I've got a bit of experience with a bunch of
>> languages and I'm not married to any of them.   I also kind of like having
>> excuses to learn new ones.
>>
>> My situation is this: I would like to eventually implement a discovery
>> tool
>> at MPOW, but I am having a hell of a time choosing one.  I'm a solo
>> librarian on a content team at a software and information services
>> company,
>> so I'm not really tied to the platforms used by the software engineering
>> teams here.  I know a bit of Ruby, so I've played with Blacklight some,
>> got
>> it to install on Windows and managed to import a really rough Solr index.
>> I'm more attracted to the features in VuFind, but I don't know much PHP
>> yet
>> and I haven't gotten it installed successfully yet.  My collection's
>> metadata is not in an ILS (yet) and not in MARC, so I've also considered
>> trying out more generic approaches like ajax-solr (though I don't know a
>> lot
>> of javascript yet, either).  I've also given a cursory look at SOPAC and
>> Scriblio.  My options are wide open, and I'm having a rough time deciding
>> what direction to go in.  I guess it's kind of similar to someone who is
>> new
>> to programming and attempting to choose their first language to learn.
>>
>> I will attempt to head off a programming language religious war =) by
>> stating that I'm not really interested in the virtues of one platform over
>> another, moreso the abstract reasons one might have for selecting one.
>> Have any of you ever been in a similar situation?  How'd you get yourself
>> unstuck?  If you haven't, what do you think you might do in a situation
>> like
>> mine?
>>
>>
>> -marijane
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
> --
> _________________ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
> *Ing. Alejandro Garza González*
> Coordinación de proyectos y desarrollo de sistemas
> Centro Innov@TE, Centro para la Innovación en Tecnología y Educación
> Tecnológico de Monterrey
>
> Tel. +52 [81] 8358.2000, Ext. 6751
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> http://www.itesm.mx/innovate/
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