Welcoming in 2009!

But I digress…One of the main complaints I hear regarding our choice of FileMaker as a database foundation is that it is not an open-source database management system, such as MySQL or PostgreSQL, or FireBird, etc…  While that’s true, it really isn’t a fair apples-to-apples comparison.  Most of those other approaches adopt more of a client-server architecture than a stand-alone application approach.  And while we do build a fair number of client-server style systems using FileMaker, having the ability to scale down to a single-user all-included package is great for small organizations or one-man bands.

I will be taking some of this to heart, however, and putting more resources into MySQL and PHP (most likely Symfony’s framework) in 2009 as some of my clients (and some that may become clients) simply will not have the budget for new proprietary software licenses in the coming year ~ for reasons given above. And besides, these technologies dovetail nicely with the FileMaker work we already do.

As I work on other frameworks and open-source projects, I will be documenting any progress (or retreat) here for anyone interested. Happy new year!

-Paul