design

This site was designed and built using an Apple Mac. HTML, PHP, CSS, Java Script and Perl coding was done using Macromedia Dreamweaver 3.0, 4.0 then MX, BB Edit and good old Simple Text.

The backend used PC servers running the superb open source products Apache web server, Linux (SuSE 7.0 for development), scripting languages PHP 4 and Perl 5. The site is supported by a mySQL database and aims to become more dynamic.

hosting

This site is hosted on a Linux box running the Apache web server arrange through iSimplexity Ltd.

why ?

The Apple Mac is simply the best personal computer for web development (and most other things). Its interface is intuitive and enjoyable to use and its reliability make things far more productive than MS Windows.

Linux is a superb platform and although not as easy to set up as NT is worth the time spent on the learning curve as it's reliable, fast, secure and, above all, free.

The introduction of Mac OS X 10.1 gives the best of both worlds. The powerful and stable UNIX base underneath enables you to run apps such as Apache and PHP while the beautiful "Aqua" interface brings the elegant simplicity and user-friendlyness of the Mac.

PHP4

PHP is an easy to learn, powerful and free open source embedded scripting language, ideal for building dynamic web sites and interfacing with the mySQL database.

Perl 5 is a powerful cgi language. we've found it a little faster than PHP but as not embedded, it's not as easy to maintain and develop.

mySQL

The mySQL database is another free, superb open source product. It is fast, secure and excellent for small and medium size web and e-commerce site. Check out the Internet Movie Database, it uses mySQL.