Perl, ASP or What

["David Harrison" <david -at- pmssystems -dot- com>]

Hi Guys

I've got to expand my horizons soon and find a solution - but I'm hoping
that someone out there could point me in the right direction.
The problem is that we need to create an interactive web page that will
monitor numerous control machines on a factory floor by using an intranet
link.

At the top level, the user must be able to use a standard browser and choose
which production machine he/she wants to monitor. Having selected a
particular machine the browser then needs to display a up to 96 temperature
control zones (probably a large table of sub-tables).  Each zone ( or
sub-table) will contain five data elements, the first is text, the next
three are numerical and the last will be one of ten images (each is a view
of a meter with needle in a different place). The data for each zone is not
static since the actual temperature may vary slightly, and, if it does, then
the display must automatically update.  I suppose this means that either the
master display must continually query the sub-machines, or the sub-machine
must prompt the master display. If I'm starting to sound vague it's because
I have absolutely no programming or protocol knowledge at this time - it
stops at basic HTML.
Another factor, should it be relevant, is that the factory machines are
using Linux as an operating system while the supervisory browser must be any
commercially available PC or Mac etc using IE Explorer Netscape etc.

So... does anyone out there have any suggestions as to which would be the
best methodology to adapt for this solution. What should I start to learn
about, Perl , ASP or what? I have no idea of the capability or limitations
of these applications or even whether something I have not yet heard of
would be a better solution. What's more . although time is not critical at
the moment, I don't want to struggle too much with the wrong application and
then have to go back to square one and start with another.

Any ideas would be most welcome.



David Harrison
david -at- pmssystems -dot- com


^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Learn how to develop HTML-based Help with Macromedia Dreamweaver!
Dec. 7-8, 2000, Orlando, FL -- $100 discount for STC members.
http://www.weisner.com/training/dreamweaver_help.htm or 800-646-9989.

Sponsored by SOLUTIONS, Conferences and Seminars for Communicators 
Publications Management Clinic, TECH*COMM 2001 Conference, and more 
http://www.SolutionsEvents.com or 800-448-4230

---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as: archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot-  Visit 
http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.