software development

C/C++

using C/C++ allows to create applications, which imply large complexity and need high performance.

typical examples:

• time critical hardware drivers.
• multithreaded network servers, handling concurrent requests rapidly.
• compact console applications, including 'curses' programs which provide resource saving CUIs (character user interfaces).
• complex GUI applications (graphical user iterface) runnig on top of X-servers. tapirdata preferably uses the gtk+/gnome-toolkits.

scripting

scripting languages as Perl, Python, Php, Ruby allow to rapidly develop small to medium sized applications, using the lots of existing modules. such as:

• generating dynamic web contents, often using databases.
• lightweighted server applications.
• automating system administration tasks, as backups, log filtering, account managing. see also: system administration
• versatile mail filtering.
• one-way applications, e.g. used for data mining (restoring data from obsolete legacy formats).
• glue applications, to fill the gaps between verious operating systems, or to build some GUI around a console-only program.

database

databases may be used to store huge amounts of data, ensuring consistence and accessability. some approved implementations are:

• MySQL
• PostgreSQL

applications to communicate by SQL with these datebase servers can be written in C/C++ or somescripting language to provide various user (e.g. web-) interfaces.

xml

tapirdata encourages the use of platform independent, approved standard data formats to ensure future data accessability as well as maximum flexibility in using evolving software & hardware products. (e.g. mobile devices)

some examples of data to be handled gainfully in XML:

• documentation: the same contents can be used to automatically generate online-help, a printed manual, and some web pages.
• configuration files always remain extensible and up/downward compatible.
• web contents: keeping contents and formatting strictly apart helps to keep a site maintainable. e.g., all contents concerning this site: <tapirdata.com> is stored in logically markuped xml-data, whereas all the formating stuff is performed using some xsl-sheets, using the XSLT processor Xalan-C++ to produce standard conforming XHTML output, as it can be proven using W3C's validator (links on the pages footers).