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Definitely not a waste of time. But besides languages, also investigate frameworks. On Wed, Jan 6, 2010 at 12:44 AM, marijane white <[log in to unmask]>wrote: > I may have worded that poorly, abstract reasons to choose a language was > exactly what I was looking for. > > Your suggestion matches my natural inclinations, I think I just needed some > reassurance that taking the time to explore wouldn't be a waste of time. > Thank you. =) > > > On Tue, Jan 5, 2010 at 7:13 PM, Ross Singer <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > > > I realize you didn't want to start a religious war nor were you > > interested in the abstract reasons people chose a particular language, > > that being said... > > > > I honestly think choosing the best* development language is very > > similar to how one settles on politics, religion, diet, etc. > > Environment plays a part, of course, but, in the end, what generally > > works best is the language that jibes best with you and your > > personality. Since you've dabbled with several different languages, > > you've had to have come across this - some languages just "feel > > better" than others. This is, however, an entirely personal choice. > > > > Dan Chudnov, for example, seems to think in Python. When I tried > > Python, it never really clicked -- I muddled through a few projects > > but never really got it. I then got introduced to Ruby, everything > > made sense, and I never looked back. I recently did a project in > > Groovy/Grails and my takeaway was that it was a scripting language > > that only somebody that had spent their career as a Java developer > > could love. My coworker (who has spent his career as a Java > > developer) LOVES Groovy. He thinks Ruby is a Fisher-Price language. > > To each their own. > > > > Since you don't seem to have institutional constraints on what you can > > develop in, I would recommend you try something like this: > > > > Take a handful of languages that look interesting to you and try > > writing a simple app to take some of your data, model it and shove it > > into Solr and make an interface to look at it. Solr's pretty perfect > > for this sort of project: it's super simple to work with and > > immediately gives you something powerful and versatile to wrap your > > app around. If you can't make something useful quickly around Solr, > > then move on to the next language because that one's not for you. > > > > If the ones that click happen to be PHP, Python or Ruby, well, there > > you go. If not, I, for one, look forward to your new Lua (or > > whatever) based discovery interface. > > > > Ultimately, any project you choose for your discovery interface is > > going to require a lot of customization to make it work the way you > > want -- the key is finding the environment that stands the least in > > the way between turning what's in your head into a working app. > > > > Good luck, > > -Ross. > > > > On Tue, Jan 5, 2010 at 6:04 PM, marijane white <[log in to unmask] > > > > wrote: > > > 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 > > > > > > -- --------------------------- www.maf.org/rhoads www.ontherhoads.org