Dungeon Master Forum

I'd like to test some ideas about social nets. I thought I could learn some programming skills to do it and chose flash. But I hit a wall.
With visual basic I used to be able to prototype my most complex ideas in a few days at most. I thought I would have no major problem with flash.
I tried several dev tools but I'm discovering that flash is confusing, bugged, in constant evolution and with little backward compatibility. Instead of saving time I have the impression that many new softwares are becoming time-consuming and creating a relationship of dependency: you have to read huge manuals, ask why it doesn't work as stated, wait for a patch, etc. I even wonder if it's not a general trend. For example the latest visual basic got rid of all the flexible, easy and generic solutions. Or maybe I'm becoming an old fart.

Do you know of solutions to allow easy multiplayer mode, centralized shared database and html capacity (like facebook for example)? Those solutions must be fast to understand and use, without months of required training. I don't want to keep spending time to update either - like with the adobe products.
I'm currently thinking about sticking to php+mysql+html, which I already know, and abandon any real-time interactivity. I'll leave nice animated interfaces for later.
I'm thinking about easyphp, do you personally recommend another solution?

The programming and dev world is evolving faster than

Spoiler

light

us who need several years to master even one single language. I have same feelings as you.
About your request, I don't think Flash will be a good choice. Were you attempting to code the whole site / connections stuff with Flash? I would use Flash only in few animated components but not for the whole interface.
I think the *AMP solution is a good choice, moreover since you already know it. I checked what Facebook uses : LAMP + Memcache for its frontend.
For real-time interactivity, you may choose an AJAX solution. Requires javascript, DOM and XML.
Easyphp will bring you with a quick WAMP solution. I used it to test some small websites.
For the multiuser mode, I don't know if there is anything special to use or have on the server side.

I don't know if this helps.

Maybe Gambit will have more interesting words about your question.

Hmmm, I'm more of a designer than a programmer, so I don't have any real wisdom about development platforms.

I last tinkered with Flash about 10 years ago and didn't really enjoy it so I never kept up with it. I understand now that it's a very powerful tool though, if you have the time to learn ActionScript 3.

Without knowing more about what you want to do, I think anyone will find it hard to recommend a platform. Can you enlighten us a little more|?

Hmmm, php+database is surely good for a browser game, but animation etc... well, I got no experience with that.
But if you already know it, that's surely the fastest solution that will not bind you in premade scriptable but unflexible features. Perhaps try to find premade libraries.
Perhaps try to find similar projects at sourceforge.net and check out how they are made.
Probably you end up with Java...

Thank you for your answers. Gambit, I aim for something similar to the facebook functionalities. I'll start simple, though!

You said you already know php/mysql/html -- so this is a great place to start from. You can add realtime interactivity using AJAX (some of which is simplified and abstracted in the jQuery framework). I know the very basics, but I don't really retain that kind of information: it seems to leak out of my head, and every time I touch a project requiring it, I basically have to re-learn it. Someone with your mind should be able to do amazing things.

I already used AJAX with json, though I should learn with xml too. It's a great technology. I'm not very good with translating my thoughts into high structured languages though.
Well, time to stop talking and start doing! Thank you.