[Wylug-discuss] Future meetings.........

[Dave Fisher]

On Wed, Sep 14, 2005 at 09:27:36PM +0100, Roger Beaumont wrote:
> Offer to speak...
<snip> 
> Over the past 18 months or so I've taught myself enough about MySQL & 
> php to understand the manuals well enough to write 3 db-driven websites 
<snip>
> I'd guess that there's a talk in that, which addresses some topics that 
> have been mentioned - and as an ex-FE-teacher I'm sure I could deliver it.
> 
> But...
> 
> I'm damned if I can come up with a plan of what to cover!
> 
> If WYLUG members could help decide the content & scope, I'd volunteer to 
> prepare and make the presentation.
<snip>
> Would that be of interest?

Of course.  As you rightly suggest, we'd need to firm up the details,
but at this stage _any_ offer or suggestion is welcome.

My own initial feelings are:

  1. That the LAMP stack is so central to Linux and open source activity
     that we need to revisit it on a regular basis.

  2. That we could probably do with at least 2 generic annual talks on
     LAMP:

     a) Getting started with dynamic (database-driven and interactive)
        web development

     b) Latest trends in LAMP and OSS web development generally

        e.g. Anyone feel up to giving us a talk on AJAX?


  3. That we need to seek a balance between:
  
     a) Not confusing newbies with the shere range and complexity of
        possible approaches

     b) Not upsetting experienced users who are all-too-aware of the
        dangers implicit in popular entry-level approaches
        
        e.g. the often automatic assumption that MYSQL and PHP are
        inextricably linked, and the poor security record of PHP sites
        built by inexperienced programmers.

My own particular hobby horse is the appallingly record of poor markup,
poor standards-compliance, and poor usability in out-of-the-box OSS web
development frameworks -- especially PHP-based content management
systems (CMS).

They may be no worse than the average .Net/ASP site, but that is no
yardstick to measure yourself by.

Open source is almost pointless when its practitioners trample all over
open standards  -- these two concepts are intrinsically linked ... at
least in my mind.

Dave