Being a perl programmer, I'm considering writing my own Control Panel. I understand that CPanel is written in perl, and that's the only programming language that I know.

Would a CP written in PHP be faster and just as secure? PHP doesn't look that hard to learn, and appears to be very similar to perl syntax.

Of course, perl is written in C, and I would guess that C would be the best language to write a CP in, but so far the only command I know in that language is "cout"; and at my ripe age of XXXXVIII, I really don't want to learn another programming language.

Thoughts?

You sound like you are a one-man team. Control panel development is not difficult, but it is the integration that's key and it is very time consuming. If you are trying to program to make money, there are better routes to go than writing a conrtol panel.

If you want to do something, maybe join one of the existing free panel development.

Peter

You are a perl programmer, but do you know anything and everything about apache and mail servers, ftp, SSH, etc.? If not, then you may not have enough information to accomplish the goal.

Top Ten Reasons why you shouldn't write a control panel

10) According to these forums, everyone and their grandmother is writing the de facto control panel.
9) It is way too much work for one person
8) It will require much more than a knowledge of Perl
7) There are already several well-established control panels
6) You are 48 - wouldn't you rather play golf instead of slaving away at a computer all day ;)
5) Hmmm...thats all I can think of right now - maybe someone else can think of some more.

Correct me if I'm wrong but cout is a syntax for C++ so you might know C++ and not C.

You know cout but not cin????:confused: :D

Originally posted by Chicken
do you know anything and everything about apache and mail servers, ftp, SSH, etc.?

I don't know *everything* about *anything*. :)

Seriously, that's a good point, and information that I really needed to know. I know Apache and FTP fairly well. I definitely need to learn more about mail servers (MX Records, etc.), and DNS (C Names, A Names, IPs, etc.). As for SSH, I wrote a perl client for that, instead of one of the normal Java ones like the one on CPanel. A lot of folks don't have Java on their machine and don't want to download it, so that's why I wrote it.

Additionally, I have more to learn about SSL. I don't even know where SSL directories are stored. I can't find a directory for them on any CPanel where I have looked, so I assume they are usually stored on a different server or account. I do know a bit about public and private keys, and passphrases.

The reason I'm considering writing a Control Panel is because none of the present ones do all that I want them to do. CPanel is my favorite, but I like some things from Webppliance too. Wouldn't it be great if we could get a Control Panel like CPanel/WHM that worked on VPS! With perl, you could chroot or use a program like SAFE to jail users; but that still isn't like a virtual private server. I bet it can be done though.

Here's just two of the extra things I've written in Perl that I thought might be good in a Control Panel.

FILE MANAGER - I wrote a file mgr a long time ago (2 yrs?) that I honestly believe is better than any file mgr out there, including CPanel's, and it does more and is easier to use.

FTP MOVER - I wrote a directory/site mover that will move directories recursively from website to website.

I really wish I could find a sharp young programmer to go into this with me, develop it, sell it, and split the profits. I think I have some great ideas, but my programming skills are slow.

Probably a bad idea though on second thought. From past experience, I know I can write a perl program in an OK amount of time, but it takes me months to make sure that I have all the bugs out and that it is secure. Security is the hard part that takes me the longest.

Golf? I hate golf. Boring to me. I like your reasons though. :)

BTW... yeah cout is C++. I know cin too... but that about does it for my C++ knowledge. I used to write some Assembly about 20 years ago... you know, that machine language written with binary 0's and 1's; but have forgotten it; and wouldn't dare want to go back to that.

To me creating a control panel would be extremely time consuming. However if you have the time, i say give it a shot. It never huts to try, and in the end, you will come out an even better programmer than you were before :)

Originally posted by vigor
To me creating a control panel would be extremely time consuming. However if you have the time, i say give it a shot. It never huts to try, and in the end, you will come out an even better programmer than you were before :)

Yeah, I doubt if I'd want to put in the necessary time that's required. I'll probably just use CPanel and add perl scripts to it. Seems much easier.

EDIT: On review, I don't know Apache well enough either, just user directives. I've never configured a server.