[ILUG] [OT] Which programming language ?

[Declan Grady]

Rory Browne wrote:

>I had to laugh at the suggestion of VB on a Linux mailing
>list(although TBH [OT] was in the subject). From your description of
>what you need, I think Perl would be best for your needs:
>
>1: You already have basic Perl experience. 
>2: Perl is Cross Platform.
>3: Perl integrates with most GUI Kits (wxWidgets, Tk, Gtk, to name but a few)
>4: Perl has an excellent DBI module.
>5: Perl can be compiled into native binaries, using perlcc, as well as
>interpreted normally.
>
>  
>
OK. I had a quick look at php on my deadrat apache box yesterday (oh the 
joys of apt4rpm !), and I do like the idea of having a browser as a client.
To fill in the picture a bit, my app is for calculating materials and 
labour required to make a product.
My current app has around 30 tables of pricing and another 15 or so of 
standard figures which are used to calculate labour times.
The tables would be queried to provide options in the app, and also 
queried to perform a recalc of a previously saved set of data.

what db should I look at ?  is MySQL a bit overkill .. I was even 
considering flat files, but then I guess its reinventing the wheel to 
query these files.

>If you'd like to learn something new, then I'd consider python. 
>
>  
>
I have used a bit of python for some fourier analysis of wav files 
(source from a kind person on this list) but thats about all.

>But then again, choice of programming language can often be a personal
>choice, in that what I might consider a good choice may not suit
>anyone else.
>
>  
>
True..  bear in mind my only experience of building gui's is in VB and 
some VBA for access & word. Very basic stuff. (no pun intended).

Recommended online tutorials / books for php would be most welcome.