I will start working on a Project soon, and as I am a noob in regards to coding (and general indecisiveness due to the lack of knowledge), I would like to have some suggestions in regards to what type of Windows (forms) application I should build (eg. payroll system, library system, etc)
I know there are a lot of ideas out there, but I would like some suggestions of an easy system to build, including a system that is easy to expand on. Will also make use of a database (connecting SQL Server to the application)
I will be using .NET / C# (VS)
Thank you in advance.
In my experience 90% of the commercial systems I've been hired to write just involve relatively basic storage and manipulation of data with some layers of security around access.
Maybe start with something like a payroll system, but keep in the back of your mind that you could scale to accommodate a full HRMIS (Human Resources Management Information System). Also, experiment with ASP.NET MVC and Web Technologies, in my experience, the majority of systems now are moving to a web-based implementation.
The possibilities are endless in the world of software development.
You could make a winforms program that calculates all the primenumbers between two user inputs. You could also then output these to a XML-file, and make a button that lets the user open an XML-file and reload whatever they input back then.
It's pretty simple, but still involves some Winforms basics and some XML data storage/manipulation.
I am trying to write an application that will access, and change, entries in a user's calendars. The changes are driven by fairly complex rules, that the user can define.
My question, before I spend too much time developing, is whether I should go with core data. A lot of the model will be handled by core data, but I will need to access a lot of stored info and then change it. Would this be a problem with core data?
It would help if I had a better understanding of core data, but at this point I do not :( Could someone comment on the possibility to perform changes on the model data, when using core data? I'd hate to be a few months into the development, and discover I made the wrong choice!
The recently released WWDC media collection contains an audio presentation from 2005 when the Core Data framework was released as part of the OS X frameworks. The presentation covers Core Data's primary goals, design principles and architecture. It also discusses a set of sample applications (the recipy apps). The collection is available through iTunesU. It is worthwhile to listen to to grasp the framework's working principles.
I've been working with Core Data for a while now. I find it easy to work with, well integrated into Xcode, stable and so far has been a true contributor to my productivity. It offers various storage options for your data (binary, XML - very easy to work with during development - and SQLite), very decent tool support, easy model migration for small changes, complex migration available for major model changes with some extra effort.
You will have to be aware of the fact that Core Data is NOT a RDBMS nor a RDBMS mapping tool. It is an object graph and persistence framework, which is a different thing. If you ignore this fact, Core Data might give you performance penalties.
Making schema changes isn't harder with CoreData than with most other data frameworks. CoreData can handle many simple changes to your data model on its own. When it can't figure out the right thing to do, you can write custom migrations.
In my experience, CoreData usually makes data-intensive apps easier to write and maintain, with a very slight loss in flexibility that you usually won't miss.
Incase if you are to develop twitter today what language, tools and approach will one take. How will he start from the very frugal configuration and gradually scale to the levels twitter has reached today. Incase if you can provide direct responses like (PHP+ Apache+ memchached+ MySQL) or (JSP+TomCat/Glassfish+ MySQL / other db) etc.
The criteria is an architecture which scales easily without much engineering and the right language so that one doesnt need to rethink his decision once the same is in place.
(As far as I know, Twitter is RoR, Linked in is Java and Digg in Php. So not looking for just random thoughts :) ) Do support why do you think your option should suffice.
Thanks
As you already say it, there are several applications that shows that several technologies are able to scale. Fortunately for them.
I think you should not focus only on "is this technology the best for scaling". But on the two following points :
Do you have skills in that technology ?
Is that technology adapted (by it's philosophy) to that application ?
Scaling is a thing. But if you can't develop your application with the "killer" technology because you don't understand it, it's anyway useless.
I recommend looking at the High Scalability website. You can build a scalable web app in virtually any language, but it's not just a matter of using the right technology and then plugging it in. You have to know what you're doing, no matter what technology you use!
Twitter was developed using the framework Ruby on Rails (ROR), and that seems to be a good choice. Ruby on rails is database agnostic (supports most databases), very scalable and very good for developing web applications quickly.
Cake is a popular alternative for PHP I haven't used Cake but hear it is very similar. The alternative to these open source alternatives would be a full blow enterprise environment like the microsoft .NET frameweork.
It takes at least 7 assemblies and restricting my AddIn's data model to data types that remoting can deal with before the appdomain isolation features begin to work. It is so complex! The System.AddIn teams blog implies to me they were trying to re-create a mental model of COM, a model I never understood very well in the first place and am not sold on the benefits. (If COM is so good why's it dead?-rhetorical question.) If I don't need to mirror or interop with legacy COM (like VSTO does using System.AddIn), is it possible to just create some classes that load load in a new AppDomain?
I can write the discovery code my self, I've done it before and a naive implementation is pretty fast because I'm not like iterating over the assemblies in the GAC!
So my specific question is, can I get the AppDomain isolation that AddIns provide with a few code Remoting snippets, and what would those be?
I'm not entirely sure that that any answer to your question meets the terms of the site - there is no solution.
Yes, remoting is easier as it is done for you. However, it is highly controlled and as you identified, requires a little work to plumb it all together. The cache file spewed out by the discovery process is hardly welcome either.
System.AddIn excels at isolation, which is actually a bit of an arse to put together from scratch in a robust, flexible way. It supports cross process hosting and fairly simple passage of user WPF elements from one domain to another.
One thing to remember however is that MAF's target audience is not those who are trying to connect two applications together. It is targeting developers wanting pluggable yet secure systems (cross process hosting protects the root application from unhandled exceptions, appdomains allow for executing potentially foreign code with defined security). From most communication, direct yourself straight towards System.Runtime.Remoting or WCF.
If you want to continue with System.AddIn, consider the pipeline builder plugin for visual studio!
In conclusion - you can get System.AddIn isolation using Remoting but to get a decent system you will require more than a few snippets. I am trying to replicate it myself and am tripping up all over remote interface component - something System.AddIn does without a hitch.
After messing around with System.Add for quite a while, I'm convinced that it was added as a one-off special purpose solution for Microsoft use. I'm surprised it got elevated to a core part of the .NET framework. It doesn't seem to have the refinement and polish needed for a general .NET framework component.
I'd like to find an alternative way to create .NET managed add-ins that doesn't require so much effort.
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So, I've got an idea for a website. I can start off using any platform and frameworks I want, but there are almost too many options.
OS Platform:
Windows, *nix
Web Framework:
Rails, ASP.NET, ASP.NET MVC, Django, Zend, Cake, others
Hosting:
EC2, Dedicated Server, Shared Hosting, VPS, App Engine, Azure, others
Persistence:
S3, MySql, PostreSql, Sql Server, SimpleDB, CouchDB, others
How do you avoid decision paralysis and get started?
Firstly, your familiarity with a framework's language should dictate which framework you choose. Don't add the burden of learning another language on top of learning a framework.
Next, have a look at the remaining frameworks. Do they have good documentation? What about the community. (A good community can go a long way to making up any shortcomings of a given technology.) Does the framework solve the problems that you need solved?
Finally, just dive in and try something! Pick the one that makes the most sense to you and start writing code. Don't do too much hand-wringing over your decision. If it becomes obvious that you made the wrong choice, it should be obvious quite early. Learn from what you've accomplished so far and consider restarting with a different technology. (Just don't get several weeks down the road before you make this decision!)
I'm sure you don't like all of those technologies equally. Pick a framework that you like and get to work.
It depends on what your app is going to be doing. A handful of the technologies you listed are direct competitors (like Django vs. Rails), but some are completely different ways to do things (like MySQL vs. S3).
Questions to answer before you begin:
Will the app need to be horizontally partitioned in the near term? If so, using EC2, Google App Engine or Azure would be a good option.
Will your app fit into the constraints of Google App Engine? If so, it requires a lot less hassle on your part than running on bare metal (whether real or virtual).
What's your preferred web framework? If you want an MS framework, you'll need to run on a host that supports that.
What will your persistence and data access patterns look like? This will determine whether to use a database or something more exotic.
If you are running on EC2, the other AWS services are more appealing. Similarly, if you are using GAE, you have only one option for persistence. If you are using Rails, may as well start with MySQL.
In answer to your question of how to reduce the number of options, the answer is to realize that many of the options are related, so you don't have as many choices to make as it first appears.
Some advice that was once given to me is, pick what your friends (or colleagues) are using. Having people around you that you can share ideas and the learning experience with is invaluable.
If you want to learn something new: I'd just go with your gut and get started. If it sucks then switch to something more familiar.
If you don't have much time: Go with what you know and forget about the other options. Just start coding.
Optimize for happiness. Pick the one that you like the most. Or the one that intrigues you the most.
I've worked in Microsoft shops, in Ruby on Rails, and in homegrown shops having Apache, Jetty, even Mason.
All frameworks have their warts, their idiosyncracies that will keep you up until 3 AM, and their "tribal knowledge" vagaries that will be completely unexportable to other frameworks. (The last point is sometimes by design, the whole "platform entrenchment" business strategy)
Listen to what the supporters of the frameworks say about the problems with the other frameworks (Google: X framework vs Y framework). Pick the framework that has the loudest supporters. If they are equally loud, make the decision with a dice roll.
With me it's simple.
I only know MS stack and see no point in "checking out" all of those you mentioned.
No, actually I once tried to use JSF before excluding it from my list permanently.
Use what you are experienced in and where you can be more productive. The objective is to get your site up and running. Go for it.
One of the biggest factors in determining which platform/framework to use is your budget. You have to factor in the cost of licensing, software required to develop/maintain your website and other miscellaneous costs.
I suggest you begin with a scorecard of your own construction. Perhaps you can find different ones on the web, but if you do, modify them to meet YOUR needs. There should be a scorecard for each level in the stack (as you've described). Each scorecard should share some aspects to grade with other scorecards but each will also have their unique aspects.
Once constructed, weight each aspect graded according to your needs.
Once you've chosen the weights, pick the scales for grades.
At this point promise yourself you wont mess with the weights or the scale and then start collecting data on your options for each level in the stack.
You may also want to put a time limit on the collection period.
Make your decision based on the outcome of the scorecard.
The beauty of this approach is that the effort is made in constructing the scorecard, not in circular arguments of options. The effort in making the scorecard is vendor agnostic and focuses on the desired result, not the options. Thus you can avoid paralysis.
One more thing, my best scorecards have included sections addressing the availability of resources and other human related things. Don't make the mistake of just looking at the technology.
good luck.
Go for personal preferences.
One decision at a time:
Firts I would begin with type of language:
Script: PHP, Python,
Serious: Java, .Net
The language will restrict your OS, plattform and will give you hints for the dataabse decission. The database load is also important. And, Do you want logic in the DDBB? how much data?
Last advice. Try combinations well tested. LAMP, WAMP, Windows with SQL Server and .NET.
Evaluate each platform and technology for quality of tools for your needs. For example, if you are cost sensitive, you would value free operating systems and tools higher than costly ones. If you need performance, you would value tools which provide high performance higher than ones that don't.
It entirely depends on your situation. I spent several months evaluating stuff for a new commercial web site last year, and it was very easy to feel paralized. In the end it was talking to several people who'd done similar things, and of course reading a lot of stuff online and from Amazon. I chose Java, since our team had a lot of experience in it, and it has good performance and extensive supporting technologies. Oracle is our database but we used a persistence manager to make it easy to change later on. We used a half-dozen very good libraries to eliminate much of the boring and repetitive coding (Restlet, iBatis, Freemarker, XStream, jQuery, SLF4J). We used Glassfish as our web server.
Yours sounds like a small project with only you to work on it. In that case, pick a complete framework instead of a smorgasbord like we did. Pick something fun to work with, and something with good "return on resume". Look very hard at Ruby on Rails, Django (kind of a Python on Rails), and Groovy on Grails (a Rails-wannabe for the Java world). In your shoes I'd pick Ruby on Rails because there's a large and growing community and a good number of books and tutorials. Plus, Ruby looks like a worthwhile language to learn. For your database, just pick one. These frameworks make it easy to change your mind later. Pick MySQL unless you have another you like better.
And as other posters said, just do it! ;-)
Like others said, pick something you and your employees are familiar with. I highly doubt you are close to being industry ready with all those techs.
OS Platform: Windows, *nix
Shouldn't matter except for Windows licensing costs, and that is probably the least of your expenses.
Web Framework: Rails, ASP.NET, ASP.NET MVC, Django, Zend, Cake, others
Dependent on your favorite language
Hosting: EC2, Dedicated Server, Shared Hosting, VPS, App Engine, Azure, others
You should design your product to be movable, so you can scale among these. If you know for sure you are going big, then just start off with EC2. App Engine is extremely limiting, ex. they don't let you form outbound connections.
Persistence: S3, MySql, PostreSql, Sql Server, SimpleDB, CouchDB, others
You need to do the research yourself whether or not your product requires an RDBMS or a simple key/value store, and what features each of these have.
Just go for it! Your platform choice really is not all that important as long as you make a reasonable choice (Ruby + Rails, Python + Django, PHP + Cake/CodeIgniter). Any of these can be used to build successful sites. If your site really takes off, you'll be able to scale it fine.