Groovy/Grails vs PHP for scalable web site dev

[Simon Shaw]

I am that rare point in a developers career where I am starting a new
web based project and I have a 4-8 week slot to train myself in the
most appropriate technology for this task. As a non-web based C#/C++
programmer with over 14 years of experience this means that although I
have a sound understanding of the software development, design and
implementation, I am probably going to have to learn a new language/
framework from scratch (if I am going to be honest this is one of the
main attractions for me). My goals for the project are as follows:
1) Highly scalable web site (millions of hits a day)
2) Backend database probably with shards. Static data store for
uploaded media files. Flex2 (or equivalent) front end.
3) Team of 3 programmers (including myself).
4) After initial period for learning technology, short amount of time
(2-3 months) to get to proof of concept.

My initial technology research pointed to PHP, however lately I have
noticed a growing interest in Grails.
Has anybody in this group had any experience developing in Grails? Is
it a stable platform? Is something about PHP inherently superior to
Grails? If I want to attract the coolest software engineers to my
project which would be more attractive Grails or PHP?

[NC]

On Nov 28, 9:25 am, Simon Shaw <[e-mail]:

>
I am that rare point in a developers career where I am starting a new
web based project and I have a 4-8 week slot to train myself in the
most appropriate technology for this task. As a non-web based C#/C++
programmer with over 14 years of experience this means that although I
have a sound understanding of the software development, design and
implementation, I am probably going to have to learn a new language/
framework from scratch (if I am going to be honest this is one of the
main attractions for me). My goals for the project are as follows:
1) Highly scalable web site (millions of hits a day)
2) Backend database probably with shards. Static data store for
uploaded media files. Flex2 (or equivalent) front end.
3) Team of 3 programmers (including myself).
4) After initial period for learning technology, short amount of time
(2-3 months) to get to proof of concept.

You forgot to mention the budget... Given your proficiency in C#/C++
it seems ASP(.Net) would be a natural path to explore (no need to
learn a new language), but can you afford all the licenses? Also, do
you have a preference in terms of the OS, HTTP server, and database
server you want to use?

My initial technology research pointed to PHP, however lately
I have noticed a growing interest in Grails.

Growing interest does not necessarily mean good scalability.

Is it a stable platform?

The truth is, nobody knows and nobody will until someone either builds
something big on it or spectacularly fails trying.

Is something about PHP inherently superior to Grails?

Inherently, no. Practically, yes. There are large-scale PHP
applications running out there today (Friendster, Flickr, and
Facebook, to name a few). I am yet to hear of one written in Groovy
(it's possible, however, that I am simply not listening carefully
enough).

If I want to attract the coolest software engineers to
my project which would be more attractive Grails or PHP?

"Coolness" is such a subjective notion...

Cheers,
NC

[NC]

On Nov 29, 3:18 pm, Simon Shaw <[e-mail]:

>
Do you have any examples of large sites that have been written
using Django/Python?

Can't say about Django, but YouTube is definitely written in Python,
as Guido van Rossum (the original developer of Python, currently
working for Google) was surprised to find out after Google acquired
YouTube:

http://mail.python.org/pipermail/pyt...er/070323.html

Are the framework suggestions you make for Django/Python or PHP?

Let's see... PostNuke, CakePHP, and Symfony (sic!) are all PHP
products. Django is a framework for Python applications.

Cheers,
NC