When it comes to computer languages, I don’t think there is any such thing as The Best Language, just opinions, so I am putting this in IMHO.
I haven’t done any serious programming for a long time – in an historical sense, I have plenty of experience – but I am thinking on embarking on a personal project and possibly one that can be sold within a specific industry. Although I would much prefer using a development language that I am familiar with, over time the world of computer languages has changed and expanded so much that I think I can discard any prior knowledge and start from scratch. This way I will avoid carrying any leftover baggage.
So my question is, what language would work best for this project?
A brief description. This will be a browser-based application, although it could run on a central server or a standalone computer, and it might be best if both concepts were built in. It will be a forms-filling-out text app, where templates will be supplied with changeable fields and non-changeable fields.
I need to support graphics only in a limited sense (showing a logo on a printed page, for example).
Speed of file & print ops is a consideration, but not the primary one. I don’t anticipate this as stressing out a CPU or stretching storage capabilities by any means, but extra performance speed would be a plus.
From the user’s standpoint, only English will be used and for the expected lifetime of the app, it is unlikely that any other language will have to be incorporated.
Some of the things that the computer language should make easy for the programmer to handle are[ul][li]The ability to program dropdown menus, calendars, and selection boxes[]Ease of upgrading form templates[]Editing (word processing) areas that can be defined and used with a spell-checker, expandable by the end user[]Good font control by the programmer, not necessarily the end user[]Cross-platform support (Mac/PC at least)[/ul][/li]
One reason I want to do this project is the best software my industry uses is horribly deficient. The editing capability is pre-1980s style, it doesn’t seem to understand conventions like standard mouse use and simple cut/copy/pasting operations. The editing page has a fixed size and font on screen that cannot be enlarged even for viewing. There’s no import/export function, no file management features and it’s simply user-hostile. That’s just for starters. It also appears to have been written by someone who never actually used the software in a real environment. I think I could do a much better job, as I can approach it from both the user’s and the programmer’s points of view.
One of the features that I am dying to include is the ability for the end user to manage boiler plate text; choose from previously-entered words or phrases, modify the boiler plate, know what kind of boiler plate text goes where, and intelligent substitution macros (today’s date). I think you get the idea – the kind of stuff that should be considered standard nowadays.
So…what’ll it be? Java? C? FORTRAN? PHP? Something else that I’ve never heard of?