Technologies and Tools

When developing for internet based applications, VCP Internet adheres to industry standards as much as possible. Conforming to HTML, XML, and XHTML standards as well as the CSS2 formatting standard theoretically will allow every visitor to a web site virtually the same rich experience regardless of their particular browsing software. The XML and XHTML specifications also allow for consistent data transfer formats when applications communicate with remote clients across networks and the Internet, regardless of the database software distributing the data. All data retrieval is done through SQL queries to these database programs.

The technologies that web pages are based on can have a large impact on a visitors experience while visiting a web site. Along with adhering to standards, VCP Internet integrates several technologies into most web sites that we develop to ensure a rich, unique experience. Using JavaScript and Flash, a web site can be more than just images and links, allowing an interactive and animated experience.

In addition to using basic web site development technologies as mentioned above, we are also versed in more advanced server-side dynamic web application development on both Windows and Unix/Linux based systems.

Basic web page development consists of developing web sites using standard HTML, JavaScript, and Cascade Style Sheets to create visually appealing dynamic web pages that do not require server-side technologies. This is the basis of all standard web site development from which more advanced web application development is derived from.

Server-side web applications are web sites that require some sort of server-side technology to accomplish tasks such as building web pages on demand from content stored in databases. A good example of this type of web site is a site that allows users to search for items or information resulting in web pages containing the results. The resulting list of items or information that is displayed is generally retrieved from a database and converted into a web page, then sent back and displayed in the users web browser.

With web applications targeted to run on Windows web servers, the server technology used is generally ASP.NET using one of the .NET platform languages to write the application with. For web applications running on Unix, or Linux web servers the most likely platform to choose for development would be PHP, or Perl/CGI depending on the circumstances, with PHP being the language of choice. Additionally, there are web sites that have been written in languages that are no longer in the mainstream. For backward compatibility, we will also service our customers web sites that have been previously written with older technologies such as classic ASP and in some cases amy even find it advantageous to convert web site over to take advantage of some of the features of the newer development languages.

Stand-alone applications are computer programs that do not require a web browser or other program in order to run. Generally stand-alone applications targeted to run on Microsoft Windows machines will be written using one of the several supported .Net language, such as C# or VB.Net.

For development in Unix-based environments where speed is usually a priority, PERL or C/C++ would likely be the base language of choice.

Finally, there are situations where a cross-platform solutions are required - meaning the application will be able to run on many different operating system without having to be rewritten or recompiled for each operating system. Java is the programming language of choice for these applications. Generally, the target platforms are Windows, Mac, Unix, or Linux. Once a Java program is written, by theory it can be run without modification on any system that has the Java runtime environment installed. With Java there is the convenience of portability, however there is a cost in performance. So Java is usually the language of choice when the application must be able to run on multiple platforms.

Computer programs have a plethora of languages available to be written in. The language of choice for a particular program is dependant on many factors including advances in programming languages, the target operating system the program will be run on, and cross-platform compatibility. However, the specifications of the project dictate which programming languages and technologies should be used.

VCP Internet developers are versed in many programming languages and will adapt as necessary depending on the nature of a project.