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I am currently looking at building an Open Source People Intelligence Application (Fancy Word for a phone book) for my church.

It'll basically be a database system where you can view info on a person and automate actions like send a "facebook message to these people on this date", "Generate a consent form for this person's parents" kinda thing..

Let me give you some background..

I've been working in .NET and MSSQLfor the last year and a half (Building small data apps for business) and I think I'm starting to get pretty good at it.

My question is now I'm thinking of open sourcing this project should I plough on with ASP.NET or use something Open Source like PHP (Also open to Python although the syntax looks bizarre, or rails, grails, practically anything apart from Lotus Domino =P)

I am a fairly quick learner but am studying for a Microsoft Exam at the end of the year and have a lot of projects at work at the moment..

Most people don't want a gritty my "my language is better than yours" debate but I Love them so go ahead!!

It needs to be secure though cause it's real people's data!

Brian Tompsett - 汤莱恩
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Daniel Upton
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6 Answers6

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It depends what the purpose of the project is. Both langauges and databases are more than up to the task. If you are looking for experience in a new language choose the one you want to learn. If your goal is to produce as a robust and functional application as quickly as possible then choose the one you know best.

Jack Ryan
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  • Thanks Jack.. I was just thinking for non-profits it's less of a kick in the gentlemans excuseme to pick up a LAMP stack than blow 2 grand on server licenses.. Id probably go .NET was just wondering if theres any compelling thing about PHP at the moment – Daniel Upton Aug 24 '10 at 13:46
  • I would say that around 2% of the jobs I have applied for here (UK) working with ASP.NET leverage Mono on Apache. I do however find that these are the smaller shops who are as you said trying to avoid the pretty hefty license fees. – Ashley Aug 24 '10 at 14:32
  • I'd go with this one, mainly for the OP's "It needs to be secure though cause it's real people's data" comment. Something like that shouldn't be attempted until after being truly comfortable in a new platform. I'm not sure if the State of Mass. would accept the "I didn't know how to parametrize my queries" defense. – bob-the-destroyer Oct 18 '10 at 21:25
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Leverage your .net skills by doing it in Mono! Then you can have the best of both worlds. http://www.mono-project.com/ASP.NET

Ashley
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  • Yeah i'd actucally thought about mono.. I Like the idea.. but if im gonna go the linux route shouldn't i go for whats the most popular? i.e. i've never seen any joblistings for mono guys – Daniel Upton Aug 24 '10 at 13:52
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Since you are already familiar with .NET, you will likely be more productive writing your project on that platform. The fact that you want to open source it should not be an issue (plenty of .NET projects are open sourced on Codeplex). Also, if your application is simple enough, you might want to look into WebMatrix, which is a no-cost offering by Microsoft for developing straightforward "website on top of database" applications.

Ben Hoffstein
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My opinion would be that ultimately the fact that you may open source it isn't the biggest consideration. To me the bigger consideration is how much time you are willing to invest. If you already know one platform you will be able to turn out your app much quicker and possibly even better on that platform.

If, on the other hand, you want to make learning a new platform part of the reason for the project, you have answered your own question!

My opinion on which language is better...for a relatively small application the language/technology you use isn't that big of deal. The fact there there are strong opinions on all sides proves that all sides have their strong point.

Icode4food
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If you are just getting started it seems like a better idea to stick with the language you already have some experience with. I think that if you try to learn too many languages when you are just starting out its going to be harder to master one.

Abe Miessler
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  • Yeah.. on top of that im trying to grep as much C/C++ as possible.. i think im just scared that i left school before my A-Levels and sure im gonna be microsoft certed.. but is that really as compelling as a guy with a masters in computer science – Daniel Upton Aug 24 '10 at 13:54
  • I admire your ambition. Just remember that each language is vast and that often the intricate details of a language are the most important to learn. Not sure about how important certs are when you have a masters. Couldn't hurt... – Abe Miessler Aug 24 '10 at 14:00
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When you're doing research, you should probably translate "Open Source People Intelligence Application" from your spec to something like "customer relationship management" (CRM), which is the same basic idea.

Jeff Standen
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