Building a Better Box for a Client

As was mentioned in a previous entry, I stated that I was willing to try being an independent contractor again sometime.  That time is now.  As such, my new corporate overlords are a media publishing group and I’ve been called in to do a ground up architecture and engineering job, along with continued long term maintenance.  Unlike before this situation appeals to me because it lacks on of the most common issues in the realm of development in general, legacy upkeep.  Sure, there is the little issue pertaining to a php application which needs to be put on a website short term, but after that we’ll be trying to limit php to specific applications on a limited (only as-needed) basis.

Ultimately we’re looking at starting with a fresh new remote server and that being said, my own experience brings me down to a quasi LAMP setup.  Traditionally I’ve found that when I want a rock solid remote host, one which I know can go years on end in a reliable manner,  I chose FreeBSD.  Nothing against Linux other than I find it fine for a Desktop or a Server, but more so the desktop than the server.  I find that there still is no substitue for Apache when it comes to matters related in pushing out pages to the web.  

Next is a point of contention, the database.  I’ve been using MySQL since version 3.23.24a (or something around that revision number), and have found that it met my needs about half of the time.  Much of it (at the time) revolved around the issues pertaining to MySQL’s myisam faults and weaknesses regarding concurrence in high insert/update environments.   I know some people out there (many actually) will start arguing this point right away, and I still say unto you that this is a known weakness.  The myisam database storage engine is designed for speed, not high-concurrecy, nor transaction safety.  When paird with the InnoDB engine, and the removal of the auto-commit flag (as it negates the whole point of using a transaction safe engine), most of those issues disappear.  The other issues pertain to foreign keys, store procedures, etc., which have been slowly addressed in versions since the 3.xx base.  Now we’re at the 5.xx family and much has improved.  

However, all of these points still cause MySQL to pale in comparison compared to PostgreSQL.  True, MySQL has proven to be very capable and very popular, especially among the Linux crowd and cheap hosting crowd.  I will be installing MySQL on the new machine to handle support of third party web applications, though when it comes to hosting any important data, there can be only one choice, and it isn’t MySQL.  PostgreSQL is the clear winner here, the closest db engine we have to Oracle without being Oracle.  

Finally, we approach the last letter in our acronym.  The ‘P’, which can stand for a multitude of langauges scripting, web and otherwise.  We have PHP which is wonderful for quick and simple (an a handful of not so quick and simple) web based applications.  It is an easy language for the novice to learn, and in the hands of an expert, even more so capable, though it has its faults, and among those security being the top.  Much effort has been made (especially post 4.2.3 and 5.x versions/trees, and I hope to see this evolution continue, though I still don’t see myself using it much as I don’t feel compelled by the language as a whole.  

Next we move to another ‘P’, which in actuality is a ‘p’, perl.  The oldest of the languages we’re discussing here, but not by that much of a time frame.  Perl grew out of the personal needs of a C programmer, Larry Wall as a combination replacement of both sed and awk (amongst other Unix utilities).  I’ve been paid to code in Perl for the better part of the past 11 or so years, and I can say after all of that time several things.  On the good side, perl is found everywhere, has a large code base, and is fast.   On the bad side, I’ll have to limit my dislikes and faults found within perl so that this entry doesn’t go on for thousands of words.  Limiting my issues with perl we will see that it allows, almost seduces people into writing ugly, cryptic code.  Yes, yes, yes, the code some perl monks/mongers write may be very crafty.  Crafty does not equate with great, let alone good quality.  

All too often we see people referring to the TIMTOWDI (There Is More Than One Way to Do It) mindset of perl as being a benefit, though I see it (time and time against, countless of codebases later, even the CPAN library) as being a flaw and weakness.  If you don’t enforce a certain level of clean design into the language itself, you end up with a mess, or as many others have stated, a write-only language, one which even the author(s) of programs cannot read/decipher down the line.  My suggestion is for perl coders to follow Java coding guidelines.  I mean, we’re talking about a language that doesn’t has several decent levels of rules and coding enforcement (such as the ‘use strict’ pragma), but is so foolish as to allow people to code in a manner contrary to that pragma when it already exists in the core language.  How about a proper exception handling system?  Eval blocks or non-core/second-class libraries do not make a proper first class handling system.  This is asinine in a language that has been around for over 20 years as of this writing.  I could go on, but I’d rather not.

This brings us to a non-p ‘P’ in LAMP, Ruby.  Ruby to me is an evolution of perl in many regards, especially its object based design and proper exception handling system, however it still fails miserably in the sense of massive overuse of tokens and pascal-esque verbatim block terminators.  Rails has made Ruby a mainstream language, and I do feel that it has considerable potential ever more so than Rails alone, but it still has a ways to go when it comes to speed and cleanliness.  Matz has be working hard on it, and I’d like to think there are great things ahead for the language from the land of the rising sun, but at the current moment, I still find it lacking as non-web specific development platform.

Finally we come to where I’m heading, and I’m sure others have already figured that one out.  Python rounds out the last ‘P’ in the equation.  Python is almost as old as Perl, and is rooted in development languages as opposed to the shell and various utilities.  In this language we see a very capable, 100% object-based development language which is capable of handling coding projects of any size which espouses clean design, human readability, code re-use, distributable byte-code compiled classes/applications and proper exception handling as a first class citizen.  

So as we can see where, the solution i find most reliable and long-term maintainable with minimal development time, maximum return for design/coding efforts, security and platform flexibility is simple.  So it isn’t technically a “LAMP” solutions, more as it is a BAMPP solution encompassing BSD for the OS, Apache for the web serving, MySQL and PostgreSQL for the database(s), and Python for application development.  

I came to the above choices after years of experimenting and experiencing and I do suggest others experiment on their own if they have that luxury/time frame available to them, but I do offer the above as a recommendation as I would (and have, and will) bet my own future livelihood on the flexibility and reliability of the aforementioned combination of technologies.  

Java Redux. Redux.

I was perusing the internet last evening to pass the time before getting into a vicious round of Champions of Norrath : Return to Arms with my lovely wife.  I had Java on my mind for a bit of the commute home and as such decided to do a bit of googling.  For whatever reason, I decided to lookup “Java for Python Programmers" much along the lines of a great "Perl to Python Migration" book I'd acquired years back.  To my utter shock, results were actually returned.  

This whole 'ordeal' with Java has been going on with me for something over 7 years.  I started teaching myself Java way back when, but found it to be utterly too verbose for productivity, opting for perl in its place.  Then perl very quickly proved to be lacking when it came to large projects, and code cleanliness (by design mind you, I have written production code which after 7 years upon seeing it again, was very easy to follow in spite of its 7,000+ line codebase), and utter hackishness about it, regardless of the raw power.  I moved to Python both personally and then shortly thereafter, professionally where I enjoy myself most.  

However, there are certain things I've come to realise over the past many years, more so over the past few specifically.  One is that I should force myself to code in one of the behemoth languages to the point of solid fluency regardless of how dreadfully painful it can be.  Two is that most jobs are hybrid these days and require a wider set of disciplines in terms of technologies, languages and toolsets than in the past, and whilst I don't have any need for Java in my current work endeavours, it doesn't negate said need in the future.  Three is that Java makes the most sense being that C/C++ are for all purposes outside of hardware tied code (such as operating systems, device drivers, compilers), dead for application creation, period.

And so it is that I venture forth again into the wonderful realm of re-re-learning the evil behemoth formerly known as oak.  May she not be as cruel a mistress as in the past as my understandings of her workings have been greatly enhanced thanks to python sharing so many of those conceptual designs and paradigms coupled with my adoration for the latter language.  

Wish me luck.