[OT] applications

[Kristian Rink]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1


John;

[John Dangler <jdangler at atlantic.net> @ Fri, 16 Feb 2007 03:57:06 -0500]

> I'm looking to design a user interface for an application, and wanted
> to ask the list if they have any suggestions for a "visual layout
> tool" that would work?
[...]
> I'd like to do this app in a language that is scalable, web-enabled,
> and can make use of xml doc files...

You should be more specific in what you want to build:
- - Does "web-enabled" mean "web application", in your case? Or should it
  also be a desktop-based application?
- - What language / platform do you want to use? Java? LAMP? Some sort of
  CGI? Zope/Python?
- - Do you want to make use of some more "high-level" framework
  (Ruby-on-Rails, django, grails, JSF, ...) or merely the lowest
  meaningful abstraction level possible (in case of Java EE:
  JSP+Servlets)?

If you want to go for a desktop application that also works "online",
go for some Java-based solution and use a Java Application (for
desktop) as well as a Java Applet (for web) project. NetBeans comes
with the Matisse GUI builder that should provide pleasant support for
building user interfaces for the both of them.

If you want to go for a web-only Java solution, NetBeans also provides
you with a "Visual Web Pack" that allows for building JSF based visual
applications in rather short time, assuming you know all the gory
details about the framework and do have some basic understanding of JEE
development as well as deployment infrastructure - the NetBeans site
comes with loads of tutorials that could be helpful here.

If you want to build a "low-level" online application, go for some
visual HTML editor (NVu, Seamonkey Composer, ...), create and style some
XHTML forms and build some backend logic in your favorite environment
to do the actual work. 

Choice is up to you, however. :)
Cheers,
Kristian



- -- 
Kristian Rink * http://zimmer428.net * http://flickr.com/photos/z428/
jab: kawazu at jabber.ccc.de * icq: 48874445 * fon: ++49 176 2447 2771
"One dreaming alone, it will be only a dream; many dreaming together
is the beginning of a new reality." (Hundertwasser)
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.3 (GNU/Linux)

iD8DBQFF1XWxcxBAPOA1m6wRAgnsAJ9mLfSRMqQjzPVIBSCAJDKe/7R2/wCfecOv
vgmqqx1PNlyG62igIlW3Xo4=
=3sRa
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----