Multilingualism, Rich Internet Applications, and the art of Web 2.0 programming

Several programming languages ago the rules were simple: For kernel level go with C/C++, and for visual applications there were some open source GUI libraries.

When I started looking around for an appropriate language to develop my own Rich Internet Application (to be on the list of 'me too' web 2.0 apps), I was overwhelmed by the choices.

When web programming was in the blooming stage, HTML was the uni solution. Then came SGML, Java, Flash, XML...and the list never stopped growing. While I am glad for all these technological developments, I feel we are reaching a stage where the evolving of the programming environment looks like the evolving of the natural languages on earth:totally segmented and compartmentalized.

For me, the choice of language should meet all the requirements below

1. It should be both installable, and also easily portable to web (or vice versa)
2. There should be lot of open source widgets available
   
3. If I have a cluster or other parallel environment in future, it should leverage that automatically, or using minimum programming (using addons)
4. Security should be inbuilt

Of course all the above are the basic requirements of web 2.0.

For now I decided on Ruby and Ruby-on-Rails (I am not sure if Ruby satisfies the above conditions..not yet).

For list of other apps, take a look at the links below.

• "An A to Z for the RIA Era"
• Programming language Popularity

Please post in comments if Ruby is indeed the ideal choice.

Why the title “itrial”?

Trying new technology is fun, but sometimes achieving what you set to do is a process of trial and error. In this process, occasionally one loses interest and gives up; and when we don’t, we succeed.

That’s the gist of “itrial: Trials and Successes”

It is also a place to log my opinions and useful information, based on my readings and trials.

Bottom line: I am as eager as you to see how it evolves