Which Web development tool is right for you?

Before selecting your next project's Web development tool, you need to know which functions the tool must perform and which tool can best accomplish those functions. The article might not settle dogmatic developer arguments, but it offers objectivity and technical detail to help you assess the strengths, weaknesses, and appropriateness of some popular Web development tools. Selecting the right tool for Web development projects is becoming more important as enterprises move from static Web sites to more sophisticated interactive, secure, database-backed Web sites. The need to develop and deploy new Web applications in Internet time feeds the need to select the right tool for the project. In writing the article, each of the authors, as Web developers, began by picking their favorite tool and presenting its strengths and weaknesses. The tools presented were: Dreamweaver; Active Server Pages (ASP); Domino; Practical Extraction and Report Language (Perl). Then they challenged one another's lists of strengths and weaknesses. The sessions were sometimes passionate, but the authors managed to keep the discussions collegial and objective. The article reflects the best from those sessions.