reflections

Work Completed

• Platform change from Microsoft Visual Studio.NET running on a Windows 2000 Server with a Microsoft SQL Server 2000 database to PHP scripts running on a Linux server with a MySQL Database
• Beginnings of overall system design

Summary

This project was intended to be created using Microsoft's Visual Studio.NET as a programming environment, and utilizing Microsoft's SQL Server 2000 as a back-end database. Additionally, Macromedia Fireworks MX and Adobe Photoshp 7 were to be used in creating images for the site.

However, I ran into problems with using Microsoft's software. While I was able to use both Visual Studio.NET and Microsoft SQL Server 2000 on my own machine, I was unable to find easily accessible and affordable hosting elsewhere for my project.

Because of this limitation, I've decided to change the development platform for my project. Instead of Visual Studio.NET and SQL Server 2000, I am going to use PHP and MySQL. I have ample space for this project on ebiz.terry.uga.edu, a server hosted by the Master's of Internet Technology in the Terry College of Business.

The problem I ran into attempting to use Microsoft's tools reminded me of Donald Norman's discussion about Practical Design. In this case, like in the reading, I tried to look beyond the problem in solving it. Was it worth it to try to use a Microsoft environment, simply because I was more comfortable with it, despite the problems associated? I decided it was not.

Work On Tap

• Research
• Finish Overall System Design
• Database Design

References

Chapter 12 in Winograd, T. (Ed.). (1996). Bringing design to software. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.