Questions on developing Card game site

^ what he said

Fortran wow that was a while back, that's a 50's language developed by IBM if I'm not mistaken.

 

OK some comments on what you wrote:

you do need php

First of all you really need PHP, in fact it is the most important language of all you need to learn. Without PHP or equivalent language you will not be able to make your card game in the first place.

SQL is a language for relational database management systems. You need php scripts to make sql queries. So in essence you're using SQL inside PHP. SQL isn't stand-alone. You can't go straight from SQL to HTML, you need a go-between and that middleman is PHP.

You see, you can't use HTML to fetch data from an SQL database for that you need php to make sql queries that can fetch the data from an sql database. You need something to run the SQL queries and that something is php. Also when you fetch data from an sql database, then mere HTML can't display it, for that you need php to echo or print the fetched data.

Remember HTML is a mere markup language, SQL is a mere relational database management system language. The actual scripting is done with PHP.

Of course there are other languages that you can use as an alternative for php. Java or Python or Perl can be used as an alternative instead of php. Please note Java is not the same language as Javascript! However I would recommend php instead of those languages I just mentioned. First of all php is easier to learn than those languages. Second of all and this is more important, for perl or python modules, you need CGI on the server, while with PHP there is no need for CGI, especially if you're making a simple card game. There is a 4th alternative language, that doesn't require CGI (similar as php) and that language is ASP. PHP is easier to learn than ASP (more on that later). So again out of all those alternatives I just mentioned, in your case it is better to learn php.

you don't need a virtual private server (a hosting account is enough)

You don't need an expensive virtual private server. A mere hosting account will do just fine. Just as long as the hosting account for the website allows you to use PHP and allows you to have at least 1 SQL database, then you should be fine. You will also need a domain (it usually comes with the account). The thing to look for in an hosting account is space on the server to host your files (that includes pictures of the cards and your php scripts) and monthly bandwidth, and this for the cheapest possible price. The more space and the more monthly bandwidth you can get for the lowest price, the better your account is.

Since you have a lot of potential developers and lots of potential visitors, I recommend that you get a hosting account with lots of bandwidth. Since you claim to know how to use ms paint, then you probably don't need a lot of space on the server. I hope, you know how to make images small in ms paint, because most people your age don't know how to do that (I'm assuming you are old (50+), because you said you know Fortran).

don't limit to accounts for ms friendly

I would also recommend not to specifically look for a server that is ms based friendly. A lot of this MS friendly server is marketing nonsense. It is marketing specifically designed to target your kind of audience, namely older inexperienced people who are new to this and who have little knowledge where to specifically look for and what is a good buy.

For example I use a server that does not run on windows and yet my own computer is a windows computer and trust me when I say I have no problems whatsoever connecting to the server or make my php scripts run on the server, despite the fact that I made the php scripts on a windows computer.

Often what you end up with when you specifically look for an MS friendly server, is lousy and expensive webhost, that offers limited database space, limited space, very limited bandwidth and where the scripts run on ASP, not PHP.

Now ASP is a scripting language like PHP. It is a language designed by Microsoft, with similar capabilities as PHP. However PHP has a syntax that is much easier to comprehend than ASP and hence PHP is easier to learn than ASP. It is for this reason that PHP is far more widely used by webdevelopers than ASP. Actually the only webdevelopers that I know who use ASP instead of php, are all former microsoft employees and they're all in their late fifties.

ASP has one advantage though. ASP is better at pointing your browser directly to a specific place on a page. Say for example a page with a html form. But it is not much of an advantage, because you can achieve the same with php and javascript and an html anchor.

So please don't fall for this marketing scheme, or you are very likely to end up with a more expensive and a worse quality webhost.

 

Oh and one more thing...

While bridge is a difficult card game, for a web-developer a card game wouldn't be that difficult to develop. The only difficult thing is, that you want, is to stream skype on a website. Now streaming is difficult, even for an experienced web-developer. Also streaming is very browser specific. It is quite likely your website won't be able to support all the browsers. If you do end up with browser compatability issues, I'd make sure that you at least support Firefox, Internet Explorer and perhaps google Chrome (there aren't many Opera users). Eventhough IE share is still declining, it is unlikely in your case, because your website will be targetting an older audience, who are more likely to still be using Internet explorer. Your audience is also more likely to use Chrome as their main browser instead of Firefox, because most older not so computer savvy folks end up installing Chrome along with the google toolbar.

It is particularly Chrome that has problem with streaming. The major reason for that is that Chrome offers no support whatsoever for embedded playlists. It doesn't matter if that is a m3u or asx playlist, Chrome supports neither.

The only solution for Chrome users who want to use an embedded playlist for streaming, is either not to stream that way, or force Chrome users to switch to another browser (basically warn them on your site that they should switch to Internet Explorer or Firefox). That warning will certainly not be ideal, as it is likely that visitors won't read it, that is especially true for your older audience, seeing as some don't even know what a browser is. This is why they won't heed the warning, because they falsely assume that it doesn't apply to them, because they don't know it applies to them.

So bottomline is that developing the card game will not be very difficult, the difficulty will be in dealing with streaming skype and your audience, because your audience is likely to have a narrow perception. However I think the perception constraint of your audience will probably not be as bad. You need to be fairly clever to play bridge in the first place, as there a lot of rules in that card game. So despite their age I wouln't be too overtly worried about them having issues with their browser, but there are some that will find it too difficult.

Since you're also looking for a real-time card game, you will need to refresh the page on a regular basis to check if persons have made their moves. The best browser that can handle quick refreshes is Firefox. So if you're not looking to make it cross-browser compatible, you should make it at least Firefox compatible.

 

i agree with you
This method helps to more creativity