Turn on the LAMP

Most of the time, clients come to me expecting me to know what programming language to use for their website. After all, that is why you hire an expert. Other times, clients know exactly the language they want to use on their site. Either way, clients deserve to know what programming language I choose and, more importantly, why I chose to use that language. So, here is your answer!

While I do work with other languages, the language of choice at QW Consulting is PHP. More precisely, I prefer to work with PHP, with a MySQL database, in a LAMP environment. In case that sounds like Greek to you, here is a little FAQ that should be able to help you understand and answer some of your questions.

Q: What is PHP?

PHP is a programming language. You never actually see PHP code in the browser (well, provided everything works correctly...). Instead, PHP code tells the server how to produce content for the requested page and then the server delivers that to the web browser. PHP can be used to do a lot of things, including connecting to a database to get content or data (think photo gallery or blog), storing data back into the database (think customer forms), sending emails (think contact forms) and performing mathematical calculations (think shopping cart). Obviously, that list could go on and on. For more examples of what PHP can do, take a look at QW's client page.

Q: Isn't PHP evil? Isn't PHP one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse?

Actually, it is the fifth horsemen...um, no. PHP is no more evil than any other programming language. While PHP has advantages and disadvantages, when coded correctly, PHP is incredibly stable and incredibly reliable, plus it uses server resources very efficiently allowing it to run faster than other programming languages. Also, PHP is free and does not require any additional charges or licensing fees.

Q: Nobody uses PHP!

Not so! PHP is one of the most popular server side programming languages in use today on the web and is widely supported by a number of web developers. It is a little dated, but as of April 2007, PHP was used by almost 21 million websites. Sites using PHP include Facebook, YouTube and Yahoo, among many others.

Q: Why not use Super Duper Programming Language X? I've heard great things about it...

I'll let you in on a little secret...so long as your website does what you want it to do, while keeping the visitors to your site happy and remaining bug free it doesn't really matter what programming language you use. I'll reveal another secret: developers who try to talk you into using Super Duper Language X simply because it is so super duper are probably more interested in writing the code than solving your problems.

Q: What are some other programming languages?

Two of the more popular alternatives to PHP are Java and ASP (or ASP.NET). ASP is developed by Microsoft and works well on Windows servers. Java was developed by Sun Microsystems. Both have advantages to be sure, and for enterprise level websites (i.e. creating an Amazon.com) or on-line applications those languages might make more sense. For the majority of websites though PHP is a great choice - especially where flexibility and quick development time are top priorities. When you hire QW Consulting, I will review your website needs to make sure the right language is being used for your website.

Q: Okay, enough about PHP. What is this MySQL thing you speak of?

MySQL is a relational database management system, meaning it lets you store data and relate that stored data to other stored data. For example, comparing a database of your customers against a database of shopping cart orders. PHP is often combined with MySQL and PHP has built in functions to connect and interact with MySQL. (Oh, and in case you are wondering, MySQL is officially pronounced with the "SQL" spelled out, but I usually take the lazy way out and call it My Sequel.)

Q: MySQL is limited! My website is going to need something more than that!

MySQL has plenty of power for a typical small business website doing e-commerce, posting to a blog or running a photo gallery. For that matter, larger websites use MySQL as well, including Facebook and Google. If in the future you need something more robust, we can move you over to something more robust. Like with the programming languages, when you hire QW Consulting, I will review your needs to make sure MySQL is the right choice.

Q: Wait a minute you mentioned LAMP but you never explained that...

Well, actually I have explained the M and P in LAMP. You just didn't know it! LAMP is an acronym for a software bundle referring to Linux (operating system on the server), Apache (the server), MySQL (the database) and PHP (the language). That combination makes for an incredibly reliable website environment that is used by the majority of websites developed by QW Consulting.

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