Filemaker & lasso: viable web application ?

Question

Hi everyone.

We have a huge web application running on lasso, mainly because it first was a huge internal filemaker database, that was to be opened to the public as a web app.

The web application doesn't use filemaker though, it runs on a MySQL database, recreated every day.

The only reason I know of for using lasso is it's easy integration with filemaker, but I never used lasso. (I'm a perl/php/mysql/javascript guy)

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So I have three questions:
Is lasso a viable language for a web app ? Are there any important benefits it offers over other languages ?

Should we want to upgrade that app, should we use a more widely used and know language, or should we stick with lasso ?

Is there anyone here that actually uses lasso ?

Answer 1

We are unfortunately maintaining a Lasso app here and it's an absolute nightmare. Lasso crashes once a day on average. The people at LassoSoft are very quick at taking our money but do not provide any useful support. Also like you probably noticed, nobody uses Lasso and you'll struggle to hire qualified staff. You'd be better off with Ruby, Python, Perl, Java or even PHP.

Answer 2

Hi,

I used Lasso many years ago (with FileMaker 6) I only remember it being difficult but I can't remember much more about it so it's not fair to comment on it further, I believe there's a Lasso Studio plugin for Dreamweaver and I hope it's improved since 2003.

However, I can comment on the alternatives

• FileMaker provides a php site assistant (since you're a php guy, this should be of interest), I've not used this but have heard very good reports

• A company called Six Fried Rice have developed a plugin for Ruby on Rails called Rfm (see http://sixfriedrice.com/wp/products/rfm/), so you can build a site in Rails and communicate easily with your FileMaker server - if you fancy picking up a new language why not try it, while I'm no Rails expert I found it very easy to get to a competent level.

With such great alternatives that are so well supported with pro-active communities I gave up on Lasso at an early stage.

I hope my opinions, subjective as they are, can help you

Answer 3

Lasso has a long history. Our firm used it quite a bit in the past, before moving to PHP. Lasso had fairly cumbersome syntax, but that was many revs ago (3.6.6, around the year 2001) and it may have improved. My sense is that the development community is relatively small.

I'd focus your decision on two questions:

1) Does it work now? 2) How easily can you find or train someone who knows Lasso?

Since your back end is MySQL, there's no obstacle to using a language such as PHP for that. The transliteration of Lasso to PHP is usually pretty straightforward, depending on how many of the more advanced facilities of Lasso you're using. But even those tend to have ready equivalents in PHP and the like.

There's really no pat answer. If the app is malfunctioning or performing poorly, and/or you expect to need to modify it at all extensively in the near future, and you are having doubts about finding qualified help, that could be an argument for considering a move to a new platform.

Answer 4

Hey there... just thought I'd add my two cents to the discussion: I am currently developing daily in Lasso. I was hired here (big New England university) about 1.5 years ago as a web programmer... with little programming experience (In a former life, I was a web designer. I knew CSS and HTML like the back of my hand, but only some very limited php). In fact, I hadn't even heard of the Lasso programming language before I started here. Anyway, they were pretty confident that I'd pick it up quickly. As skeptical as I was, they were right. The Lasso syntax is quick and easy to learn. Once you wrap your head around the syntax and the [SquareBrackets], the rest falls into place instantly. In a short time I was able to build some really complex, database driven, web apps.

As far as community, clearly Lasso's is nowhere near the size of that of php or ruby... but what I've found is that Lasso's developers are die hard fans of the language and thus are very active and helpful. Personally, I find a small devoted community more easily approachable and less intimidating. Most of the really juicy Lasso conversations take place on LassoTalk. Oh also, I went to the Lasso Developers Conference last year and was blown away by the dedication of the Lassosoft company and the developer community. (Not to mention all of the exciting stuff coming up in Lasso 9... later this year?)

Some downsides to Lasso: First and foremost, cost. It's expensive. There's no two ways about it (though if you're just looking to build something for demo or for a very small deployment, you might be able to get away with the developer's installation). Second, lack of mature hosting options. Take a look at the vast amount of stuff you can get in any random $5/mo. php hosting plan and compare that to anything you can find for Lasso. Yeah, it's pretty rough out there (these guys are not much to look at, but are pretty reliable: cheaplassohosting.com). I'd guess that most Lasso users are hosting their own solutions though.

If you decide to keep going with Lasso, here a few resources that I've found to be invaluable:

tagSwap - a puplic exchange for lasso custom tags

Lasso Reference

Tip of the Week

Also worth noting, there's a Lasso environment for Eclipse as well as a built-in support in Panic's Coda (which I enthusiastically endorse!).

Yeesh... didn't mean for this to be so lengthy. Anyway, I'd be happy to answer some specifics for you. Good luck with whatever direction you choose to go in!

Answer 5

We've been using Lasso for 10 years now and are really happy with it. Over the course of time, I have had 2 different developers who each know some PHP when they started. We have considered at both points if there was a reason to drip Lasso and move everything to PHP. As each of the developers got comfortable in the position, both came to the conclusion that Lasso was easy to use and in many regards far more intuitive to work in than PHP. In each case, we never moved very far towards a total switch over.

Our database needs are still almost entirely met with FileMaker. since it can with Oracle, MySQL, and MS Server Server, it has remained a perfect database solution for us. Most of our Lasso/web work is simply displaying data to the web, and simple web forms. We have played some with the FileMaker PHP and I think it looks promising. We have also used the FileMaker Instant Web Publishing in limited ways. Pick the right tool for the job, as opposed to thinking one tool does everything.

Unlike a user earlier, we have not experienced problems with crashing for many many years. Our Lasso/webserver hasn't crashed once in move than 5 years.

If I wasn't using fileMaker and had a 10 year history with Lasso, I'd still give it a look. My experience is that it is pretty easy to pick up and if your code is well written and documented, then you don't need to be worried about how easy it is to find an experienced Lasso developer. I think the hard part for a PGH person opening up Lasso code that isn't documented- they don't have much to start with. so documentation is everything!

Lastly, the Lasso community is an awesome resource and extremely helpful. While there may be a gazillion resources out there for PHP, it can be hard to find helpful, useful PEOPLE. With Lasso there are some really great resources, but also a very active community of folks extremely willing to help you.

Answer 6

Our company uses Lasso and Filemaker. I found it to be a great departure from what I used to. The reason it was chosen in the first place was because of Filemaker. If you're using MySQL, then I recommend switching over to PHP or something else. There's just more documentation, forums, and sample code you can use. But then again, the cost of porting such a huge project may not be worth it.

FYI, our Lasso server crashes about once or twice a month, which is more often than it should.

Let us know what you decide and good luck!