Posted by taps128 on 11/29/07 09:23

Simon Shaw wrote:
> I am that rare point in a developers career where I am starting a new
> web based project and I have a 4-8 week slot to train myself in the
> most appropriate technology for this task. As a non-web based C#/C++
> programmer with over 14 years of experience this means that although I
> have a sound understanding of the software development, design and
> implementation, I am probably going to have to learn a new language/
> framework from scratch (if I am going to be honest this is one of the
> main attractions for me). My goals for the project are as follows:
> 1) Highly scalable web site (millions of hits a day)
> 2) Backend database probably with shards. Static data store for
> uploaded media files. Flex2 (or equivalent) front end.
> 3) Team of 3 programmers (including myself).
> 4) After initial period for learning technology, short amount of time
> (2-3 months) to get to proof of concept.
>
> My initial technology research pointed to PHP, however lately I have
> noticed a growing interest in Grails.
> Has anybody in this group had any experience developing in Grails? Is
> it a stable platform? Is something about PHP inherently superior to
> Grails? If I want to attract the coolest software engineers to my
> project which would be more attractive Grails or PHP?

I know this is a php group, but why not give Python/Django a chance. It
was developed by a group of php developers, it's easy to use, fast and
flexible. And i think it can cover all your requirements. It's well
documented, and has a very active user group. For an experienced
programmer, who doesn't know python, it will take you a week or two to
learn everything to know how to build an Django web app.
On the other side if you stick with PHP you have a pretty wide range of
chices. For a very serius framework I'll reccomend you PostNuke , which
is currently entering it eight version (don't be mistaken by its cms
description, you can develop in it everything you want. ). Or you can
use CakePHP or Symphone. I've heard good things about them, but I
haven't worked in them, so I can't tell you much.
I you don't find a framework you like, you could build your system from
scratch. There are a lot of open source application components out
there. I strongly suggest you use a template engine, it will make your
life easier (don't write html code and php code mashed up together),
Smarty is the way to go these days.
Hope that helps.

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