Choosing a Web design language

Choosing a language for your website design is an important decision because it can affect the way your site performs and the amount of effort you may have to put in for its maintenance. Unfortunately there is no single preferred solution and you may have to make the decision based on the particular requirements of your website design. Here are some of the options available to you, and the issues involved that you may have to consider while choosing the language that you use for website design and development.

Available Options

The most commonly used languages for website design and development are:

Hypertext Markup Language (HTML): You must be familiar with this language or at least heard its name. It’s the most commonly used option for website design and development. The “,htm” extension that you see in the files that you load from the Internet shows that the files that you are loading are HTML files. The biggest advantage in using HTML format for website design is that you can quickly develop a web page by typing in the commands in any text editor (such as Notepad) and saving the file with an htm extension. HTML will enable you to display only simple “static” pages on the user’s browser. These pages will only display the text that you have typed into your program. If your website design involves something more dynamic and interactive, as is frequently the case, you may have to choose one of the other options for website design and development.

PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor: This is a regular programming language that will enable your website design to include various actions such as database access to build truly dynamic web pages.

ColdFusion: This is another programming language available for website design and development that has capabilities to generate and serve dynamic pages based on instructions contained in a database, as and when a user requests the page.

Java Server Pages: This is also a programming language for website design and development that stores little program snippets called servlets on the server and creates dynamic web pages.

Active Server Pages: This is a programming language for website design and development Microsoft that enables the development of dynamic web pages.

Choosing a Programming language for your website

With so many languages available the question arises as to which language one should choose. It all depends on a variety of factors like the size of your organization and the budget available to you, the kind of support staff that you are willing to hire, the complexity of your website design and so on.

If you have a limited budget and simple requirements, HTML might be the right choice for you. You can easily develop and maintain the web pages on your own or by employing low cost or part–time support staff. However, if your website design involves dynamic content or has more complicated requirements, you may have to consider one of the other languages. Abcdesigning has experienced programmes in all main development languages including Ajax, PHP, Flash, Ruby on Rails, XML, ASP, CFML, Java, ASP.NET and others

In general Java Server Pages and Cold Fusion are used for more sophisticated website design. Both PHP and ASP are extremely popular and used in a majority of commercial applications, as they are powerful enough to meet most requirements. Whichever language you choose, you should keep the in mind the considerations laid out below.

Considerations in selecting a programming language

Portability: Certain languages like ASP and Cold Fusion run only on Windows environments, while PHP and JSP run on almost any platform. Make sure that the language that you choose will run on the current environment and also be capable of being run on any future environments that you are likely to choose.

Ease of Learning: Some of the languages are easily learnt by programmers having a certain background. The advantage of choosing a language that can be more easily learnt is that in case you need to train new programmers in the future you can do it more easily.

Support: What happens if you face a problem while you are developing an application and need support. Languages like ASP are supported by the company that has developed them, like Microsoft in the case of ASP. In addition, you have a number of user forums that help you with your problems. Make sure that the language you choose is well supported. You should select the language that other people have preferred for the kind of application that you have in mind.

Performance: Some programming languages can give you better speed of execution. It doesn’t mean that you should choose only those languages. If speed is important for your applications, this will become an important factor. However, you should evaluate the language in totality considering the other factors listed above.