Please help educate me (at a basic level!):
I am looking to hire programmers to design a database for a service
our company is building.  A few we've met with prefer different
programming languages.  Help me understand the
1) strengths/weaknesses of the various options (java, PHP, ASP),
considering the following measures:

Flexibility? (ie ability to scale up, add new functions, etc)
Connect with other software?
Security?
Ability to handle complex database collection and analysis?
Fit well as main part of a web-based portal service?
time to construct?

2) is there a 'premium' database language that potential investors would value more?

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Clarification of Question by dk_dodgers-ga on 29 Jul 2005 12:04 PDT

Thanks for the direction, 
bottom line - I need a basic introduction to the various programming
languages - general pros/cons of Java/php/asp.  Why would I meet with
a team and outline the specs for the database and have each party
believe it has to built in Java vs. PHP?

The core product is a matching database (akin to LavaLife except in a
different industry) where both parties seek out specific attributes in
each other.  We are only interested in a basic beta version of the
database to show investors.  The team to build the final product would
be put together after this concept product is built.

You need a good team that knows how to work well together.  You are
going to need a knowledgable DBA, web designers (I am guessing this is
a web based application, but maybe not), application developers, QA
people, project manager, documentation, someone versed at gathering
user requirements and so forth.

Before you "pick a language" you need to define the business problem
you are trying to solve and work towards how to solve it.  There are a
lot of parts and $20 isn't going to give you a good or complete
answer.  You are asking about database design and then in the next
breath asking what language you should choose.  Two different things.

You need to step back and get someone who can work with your domain
experts and understands the technology stack.

If you are not familiar with the technologies you mention, it might
work better to find companies (or individuals) that do development and
simply get bids from them to build a product to your needs.  Perhaps
have them bid the cost of constructing a prototype as well as estimate
the cost of building a full-scale version.  Then pay for the prototype
you want.

The technologies you mention are all well-suited to the project you
describe, but there is really no way you can quickly educate yourself
regarding these technoloies sufficiently to make anything more than a
haphazzard guess as to which you need.  Get others to bid the work and
manage the contract with that group rather than trying to hire
programmers and run your own development team.  If you have never done
development and try to directly manage developers, you are in for a
very frustrating and expensive lesson in what not to do.

If your database is going to be driven by data colected from a webpage
then I would use a PHP interface to collect the data and store it in a
MySQL database. You can always output the information into an XML file
and other programs can read that data. The biggest PRO about PHP is
it's really easy to learn and use and there are already a lot of
pre-defined functions. You're just using PHP to collect the data but
your database is MySQL. If you're company has it's own linux machines
then you can host your own webserver and have direct access to your
MySQL database. So your database is as secure as the machines your
company hosts. I like the ease of MySQL. It's really easy to modify
your database and extract information and do with what ever you want.
If you need to anaylze your data then you make a PHP script that
connects to the database and calculates what ever you want with the
data. Web services such as forums, user databases (user
authentication), web polls, mail groups. Services like webshots where
users log in and upload pictures and what not can easily be
implemented in PHP/MySQL and are usually done with PHP/MySQL. Those
are just some examples of commonly used services driven by a PHP/MySQL
implementation.

If you're service is going to be something more complex like say a
program that hosts a Direct Connect server and ties in with the Direct
Connect(DC++) software you are going to need something more than just
PHP. I've used JAVA and C++ and they have their subtle differences but
they cannot be explained easily. For example JAVA has a garbage
collector where as C++ you have to manually delete nullified data
structures or variables that are no longer being used. The majority of
companies are using C++ for their software but with C# coming into
it's own it just all complicates the matter.

If I were looking for someone to make my database, I would tell them
my situation and see how they would approach it then compare it with
other programmers. As for how long it would take to make your
database, I would have to know the scale of the project. If it were
something like a message board then I would say it would take me a
good week for a good looking flawless message board. If it was just a
database with user information ie: eye color, weight, favorite food,
number of times they brush their teeh a day and I wanted to calculate
the probability of them getting tonight, it would only take me a few
hour to whip something up like that.

My knowledge is limited as I am only on my junior year of my Computer
Science degree @ University of Texas, but I hope I was somewhat or
close to being insightful. I wish you luck with your project!

Thanks for your help with the comments!  Much appreciated :)