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Taking time to explore is rarely a a waste of time in this area, because exploring is how you learn in programming/software engineering. marijane white 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 >>> >>> > >