Which Is Faster?

[Dman8568]

Hello,

 

I have been given the task of designing a Check-In system for a larger special event to be held this spring. We are planning on utilizing a central server running a master database with clients connected to the server. Now, I have 2 options for the logistics of this. I could develop an internal website, where the client just use their browsers. Or, I could develop a piece of software which interacts with the database.

 

Does anyone have any thoughts / comments on which model would be fastes, and create the lease network traffic? I am very concerned with the speed factor because we will have to be setting up a VPN over a Dial-Up connection.

 

 

Thank You,

[carbonize]

In theory the software should be the faster method (so long as it's well coded) because it is talking directly to the database. If you were using a browser you would require a web server to act as middle man. You also get the extra time required to download all the HTML etc. The software should just be sending the required data directly to the database without all this surplus. Plus with software you can build checks directly into the program without going into javascript or checking the data once it's been sent to the server.

Edited May 5, 2007 by carbonize

[Dman8568]

How would I go about developing software compatible with both Windows and Mac? I currently VisualBASIC .net.

Is there a tutorial available somehwere?

 

Thanks again,

Edited May 7, 2007 by Dman8568

[TCH-Andy]

The code for the bulk of it you should be able to do in any standard language (since it should compile on any machine), the challenge is the GUI which is different on different operating systems.

 

The only true cross platform development I have done recently was in C++ and used wxWidgets - which worked very well on windows, Mac, Linux.

[carbonize]

Is there a .NET framework available for macs?

 

Only truely crossplatform language I know of is Java. C/C++ is cross platform but you have to write different forms for each or use something like GTK or WX Windows.