[ILUG] [OT] Which programming language ?

[ccostelloe at flogas.ie]

>         If you must have a native Windows GUI, then Visual Basic (.NET or

I resisted this flamebait for as long as I could.  Apart from feeding the MS monster, encouraging someone to learn Basic is not good.  I agree with the others who suggested Java may be a better solution, but Borland's Kylix is a much better option than MS - you use Pascal or C++, and it is cross-platform between Windows and Linux.  I find it fine, but Kylix 3 needs a bit more work by Borland (which I understand they will do, once they get over the .NET porting for Delphi and CBuilder).  If you get frustrated with Kylix, write the application in Delphi or CBuilder and when Borland catch up, Kylix should port it to Linux.

> whatever version they have now) is easy to pick up and can be used to
> bolt together an application such as yours (I'm guessing, from the sound
> of what you describe) fairly quickly and easily. ODBC support is
> relatively good, so you can still use whatever database you like in the
> background, 

Borland's producs are much more advanced than MS and quicker at getting the GUI aspect running (Microsoft's .NET offering is a poorer and blatant copy of Borland's products), and Kylix does ODBC and more.  I personally use Firebird on Linux for the database server, which is like ODBC++.  With Kylix, you don't even necessarily need to write any code at all, you can link visual components to the database, if you wish.

</rant>

> and do some/all of the processing on the client machines, if
> you like. This does, of course, tie the clients to a Windows OS for the
> life of your program. (Though it may run happily under wine/winex.
>
> or mono, any day now ... 

I did not hold out any great hope for Mono initially, but it is now a real contender - most component writers are now seriously seting up for Mono ports.

Ciaran