Linux wrote:
> I am wondering about a development language that would allow me to create
> something like a Visual Basic form so I can develop applications on Linux
> using MySql for the data server.  I think I like PHP and Python looks doable
> however it is hard to tell if I can create GUI front-end.  I know it is
> possible to do application development in PERL however I find Perl to be an
> ugly language (sorry).  I don't think Java is the answer either.

Why isn't Java the answer?  JDBC drivers are available for just about
every available relational database, including MySQL.  JBuilder 4 has an
excellent form design tool, and  the Foundation is free (beer) and is
available for several platforms (Linux, Solaris, Windows).  The Java 2
SDK 1.3 for Linux is now very stable.  

Java w/JDBC affords you the ability to use a common API for database
access, even though the SQL dialects used will sometimes vary between
databases, depending how involved your SQL is.  You also get the luxury
of not even having to recompile your class files when you want to use
your app on other platforms.

The time for myths about Java and its performance has been over for a
few years now.  Java is every bit as viable a systems language as C++
is, and is (IMO) 100 times easier to develop in.  Hell, we're developing
dbXML in Java and for an XML database, which are very resource and I/O
intensive, it performs excellently, even though we haven't optimized one
line of code yet.

-- 
Tom Bradford --- The dbXML Project --- http://www.dbxml.org/
We store your XML data a hell of a lot better than /dev/null