Hi Milan !

Milan Babuskov wrote:

> Alexandre Benson Smith wrote:
>
>> I have let WEB development aside because I think it's good for browsing
>> data but has a very poor interface regarding data entry, to get anything
>> close to the experience provided by a desktop app, one need to do a lot
>> of code in Javascript, use DHTML a lot and so on, things that I always
>> think to be extremely more time consuming to do the same in a Delphi app
>> for example. Now we have AJAX in the game
>>
>
> To be honest, AJAX was there years ago, but nobody knew about it until
> Google Mail showed up one day.
>
>

Yes, I heard that sometimes, but as the majority, I did not knew it
until it becomes mainstream. But to my case, it's one more technology to
master.. Good to hear it's an easy one :-)

> I'd recommend a smaller project to start with, especially if you're
> going to start from scratch. I wrote my first 'framework' back in 2002
> for a smaller (~30 tables) application. The second one came just a year
> later on a big (100+ tables) application. In the smaller one I learned
> all the DOs and DON'Ts. Last year I developed a comletely new framework
> (MVC this time) and I'm sure this one is here to stay. I even rewrote
> that first application to it, in about a week.
>

Yes, it's what I will do, I have an ERP system for small/medium size
companies, I will develope some search facilities over the WEB (check
the stock, look at costumers financial details, look if an order has
been delivered, and so on). At first it will be more data reading than
data writing, but I am sure as far as my costumers start to use it, they
will ask me to provide more functionality, I just like to start at least
on the right path...

>> Should I start with a basic interface (HTML only), or should I start
>> from the beginning using Ajax and DHTML ?
>>
>
> DHTML and AJAX from the start. You can't make a mistake there. Just make
> sure you don't overdo it with AJAX, as it can be tempting. There are
> things AJAX is good for (saving bandwidth and increasing interactivity)
> but it has drawbacks (harder to debug, breaks the Back button in
> browser). My rule of thumb is to use AJAX whenever I feel that plain
> DHTML is too restrictive for the user of too inefficient (for example,
> loading a 500kB page into browser just to hold some info for JS
> functions is not a good idea).
>
>

Ok, I take your point, and you be very conservative to not overuse it

>> I am afraid of adopting a Framework
>>
>
> The biggest problem with that is that you would need to understand how
> it works, and why it works that way. Without some developing 'on your
> own' it would be hard.
>
>

And for me I have one more problem, It's hard to understand or decide if
it's good or bad on size/complexity/speed, if it's use good or bad
practices, without mastering PHP and carrying some years of experience,
I just look at the examples for a while, think if it sound good of fishy
(from the design perspective) how it take apart the different pieces of
code, and the like. I look with a coder eye, but not with a PHP coder eye.

>> I think that reading those books give me a brief overview about the
>> whole thing, but I don't think that neither are good examples of doing a
>> real project using PHP, all the rules and presentation are mixed
>> together, that does not look the way it should be. I understand that
>> both books are introductory, but I think it should introduce in the
>> right way :-)
>>
>
> Well, I can tell you how my framework looks like:
>
>

I think this is the kind of my tool that I will need...



Thank you !

--
Alexandre Benson Smith
Development
THOR Software e Comercial Ltda
Santo Andre - Sao Paulo - Brazil
www.thorsoftware.com.br