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My web development team is currently experienced with PHP, Drupal, OpenAtrium, and has limited Javascript and Adobe Air dev. experience.

They need to develop a relatively complex series of web apps. I am trying to decide on which route to take. So far, I have narrowed it down to Lift & Scala, Django, or ASP.NET MVC.

Can anyone give me any "heads up" on these platforms? One reputable source told me Scala is "hard to learn" and Lift "isn't a good product", and that Django is "quick & easy". Of course, Lift is more powerful and executes on the JVM, making it fast. He also said .Net dev is fast.

Other sites I have read have said nothing beats Django for dev. speed.

What do I need to know about these frameworks that will help me make this decision? I am looking for "hard learned" lessons and experience, not theory.

I don't want something that will take a year to learn but deliver great results. A reasonable learning curve with good results is optimum.

IamIC
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    this is pretty subjective. not sure there is a real answer to this. – nathan gonzalez Jun 12 '11 at 19:54
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    Of course it's subjective. Even "what's the best way to write ___ in SQL is subjective". Should we down-vote all questions? – IamIC Jun 12 '11 at 20:37
  • @Nathan, ironically your 1st question is much the same as mine, asking a subjective question. – IamIC Jun 12 '11 at 20:40
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    Thats not ironic... - Anyway questions like this are closed quite often because everybody learns a little differently and finds differently languages more suited to their style. I enjoy coding in C#, find Ruby quirky and Python to be hard to read ( I miss {}'s ). My opinion is personal and just as relevant as somebody with the exact opposite one. – John Farrell Jun 12 '11 at 22:46
  • @IanC, most questions about the best way to write sql or something of that nature are based on a solid metric, such as performance. that said, i personally don't mind your question, and did not downvote it. and if you look at my first (of two) question, i went through a few revisions to keep it out of the realm of entirely subjective. – nathan gonzalez Jun 12 '11 at 23:07
  • Closing this is silly. The OP isn't asking which is the best framework, just information people have that can help in making the decision. – Jim Balter Jun 13 '11 at 00:23
  • @jfar I agree with you. @nathan, got it. @Jim Balter thank you. – IamIC Jun 13 '11 at 06:45
  • Closing this question doesn't make sense. I am asking for "what to look out for", not "which is best". I did give a solid metric: short learning curve while still being powerful. – IamIC Jun 13 '11 at 06:54
  • Everybody learns differently. Thats the problem with questions like this. – John Farrell Jun 13 '11 at 12:32
  • @jfar true... but it can help to get insights. I saw a case study where a company took half their .Net developers, taught them Django, and then gave the now 2 teams the same project to do. The Django team completed in 50% of the time. Subjective and far from inclusive, but insightful. – IamIC Jun 14 '11 at 06:23

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I would use Play Framework with the Scala module. It's type-safe, fast and has a short development cycle. I have used it for a few weeks and I like it a lot. And it has good error messages.

Jonas
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  • +1 I like Play! Framework a lot. However, as far as Play! Scala goes, which IDE did you use? I could not get Play! Scala 0.9 to work with Eclipse. I am using Scala 2.9.1. – lobster1234 Jun 12 '11 at 20:00
  • @lobster1234: The IDE support aren't that good yet. But I use 0.9.1 (includes new Scala templates) and Scala IDE (Eclipse), but it wasn't easy. See my question [Errors in Eclipse for Scala project generated by Play Framework](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6177851/errors-in-eclipse-for-scala-project-generated-by-play-framework) – Jonas Jun 12 '11 at 20:03
  • @Jonas, how long did it take you to learn Scala, and do you come from a Java background? – IamIC Jun 12 '11 at 20:38
  • @IanC: I don't know Scala very well yet. When I use Play Framework I don't have to use much Scala code, so I haven't done anything advanced with it, mostly accessing the database and templates. I think Play is a very good way to start with Scala. Yes, I know some Java, see my tags. – Jonas Jun 12 '11 at 20:42
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    @IanC I am moving to Scala from Java (~13 years) and so far have found the transition as not too bad. It took me about 2 months and now I feel confident about taking on a real problem and solving it with Scala. This is more than just syntax - the notion of functional programming is a big part of it. I'd recommend the Odersky book as the one and only guide to this transition. Best of luck! – lobster1234 Jun 13 '11 at 00:05
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    @IanC The claim that Scala is hard to learn is simply not a valid or "reputable" claim. Look at the Odersky book (http://www.artima.com/shop/programming_in_scala_2ed) and see ... or if you don't want to spend anything, see http://programming-scala.labs.oreilly.com/ -- it's free. – Jim Balter Jun 13 '11 at 00:42