PROGRAMMING HELP, PROGRAMMING TUTORIALS, PROGRAMMING ARTICLES

This article outlines the process of setting up a source code management system, evaluating the pros and cons of Razor and CVS, and compares BugTracker and GNATS.

Give open source databases (OSDBs) two years or less, and they'll be ready to take on the enterprise. That's not just some conclusion I came to out of my head; that's the latest word on the subject from AMR Research, a research firm that specializes in providing analysis on enterprise software. The report has not yet attracted the attention it deserves--but it will. Even IBM and Oracle may start feeling the pressure in the next year, if AMR's view on this can be trusted.

The reality of any design business, or service business in general, is that you must pay as much attention to the business end of your efforts as you do to the service end. Failure to do so exposes you to liability issues, profit loss, headaches, dry mouth, wasted projects and more. While you may be a creative design god, a visionary, genius-it doesn't mean you are running your business as effectively as you can. If you've ever watched a profitable project slip away because the edits just wouldn't end; if you've ever let a client push you around and make you feel uncomfortable; if you've ever found yourself wishing you had more legal protection for the work that you do, then this article is for you.

What is Open Source, really? This week, we take a look at that very question. Sure, we all may use it, work with it, even love it,but do we truly understand what open source software entails? Maybe we can help...

Michael "Monty" Widenius, the lead MySQL developer, contests the benchmarks compiled by Great Bridge, and reported on by several prominent websites like ApacheToday and Slashdot.

This article by Steven C. Den Beste examines the Open Source movement and community from a different stance, making some very interesting and valid points along the way. Give it a read and voice your opinion through our comments system.

Whether you're a traditional graphic designer taking your first wobbly steps toward Internet design or a sure-footed and web-savvy veteran, you face the same challenge--how to continuously build your skills and keep on top of technological advances. It seems that no sooner is a scripting language, software upgrade, or design tool introduced than it becomes a required bullet-point on the resume of everyone in the Internet design field. The task can seem overwhelming: how do you build your skills while keeping on top your regular job and then maybe have a life on the side? Starting a personal training regimen is the easiest way to ensure that your skills remain sharp and continue to grow. By following the steps below, you can put yourself on a program that will pump up your web design skills and make you one of the more attractive prospects in the job market.

PHP is now running over a million web sites and with good reason. PHP is open source, it runs equally well on NT and UNIX, it's well documented. PHP is no doubt stealing market share from Microsoft's Active Server Pages, but the media has been unusually quiet about the issue. Even as Apache's success has become front page news, PHP has gone largely unnoticed. Maybe Microsoft wants to keep it that way.

The Apache Software Foundation's Jakarta Project has gone live! The goal of the Jakarta Project is to provide commercial-quality server solutions based on the Java Platform that are developed in an open and cooperative fashion.

Almost anyone who has used a computer for very long learns about bloat. Fromoperating systems to applications, one thing is sure: the new version willtake up more drive space than the last. And there are no guarantees thatthe new version will be faster. In fact, the more bloated andfeature-ridden a software package becomes, the more cumbersome and sluggishit is likely to become. Therefore when speed is critical, as it is on the Web,sometimes a smaller, less-complex program is more desirable. So it is with web servers.

Recent reports indicate that governments are trying to pass technology-related legislation in an ever-increasing manner. What effects will this have on the Internet? Or will the government be completely helpless against such an unwieldy opponent like the Internet?

The good news: The PHP Group has introduced the first beta of the PHP 4.0 Web Scripting Language with tons of performance enhancements, downward compatibility and long-awaited features. The bad news: Too many open source projects are neglecting crucial elements like documentation and marketing. The open source vs. Microsoft wars are far from over, and I'm beginning to see signs of shake-outs between open source communities. Start thinking like a business or prepare for casualties.

Justin Vincent from AbslouteChat.com claims to have found a bug in InternetExplorer 4.0. The bug reportedly causes IE4 to waste bandwidth byrepeatedly downloading cacheable images. Is this a feature or a bug? Haveyou seen this in your logs? Read on...

Apparently Swatch, the Swiss watchmaker, recently proposed a new standard of time for the digital world. Appropriately enough it's called "Internet Time" and it measures units of time not in seconds, but in "Beats".

While the Open Source movement has lots of momentum right now, it's not anew concept. Collaborative, free source code projects have been around fordecades, and have evolved in many of directions. As professional webdevelopers, we need to look closely at alternative open source tools. Thereare a wealth of good operating systems, web servers and other toolsavailable that don't get all the headlines like Linux and Apache.